Bar Graphs

This is the simplest type of graphical presentation of data. The following types of bar graphs are possible:

(a) Simple bar graph

(b) Double bar graph

(c) Divided bar graph

We will illustrate each of these graphs by the following illustrations:

Simple Bar Graph

1. All bars have the same thickness.

2. Distance between two consecutive bars is the same. The bars can touch each other.

3. The height of each bar represents the frequency number of students.

4. The thickness has no significance.

5. Bar graphs are preferred when each item of data is separate from the other.

Double Bar Graph

Divided Bar Graph

Double bar or divided bar graph is preferred when we want to compare two sets of related data.

An officer with a monthly salary of Rs. 7200 plans his budget for a month as given below:

Represent this data by a bar graph.

This data can be represented by a bar graph as follows:

The above data can also be represented by single divided bars as below: