Although there are several fairly common ways to graphically display descriptive statistics we will primarily focus on two:

1. The Histogram or the Bar Graph
2. Stem and Leaf Plot

Example

Let’s go over an example of how to create a bar graph. To begin with let’s look at this blank graph seen below:

The bottom line on a graph is often referred to as the x axis and the vertical line to the left is called the y axis.

We will now use the following values which represent the number of bark beetle killed trees per acre on seven sample points from a watershed.

98, 102, 106, 105 102, 81, 24

Let’s begin by making a bar graph with this data: On the x axis we will label each site 1 through 7 and on the y axis we will plot the number of bark beetle killed trees per acre.

Your graph should look like this when you are done:

You can see that bar graphs are one way you can graphically show your data. Bar graphs are especially useful when you want to show data from qualitative variables.