Exploring Data in One Dimension

Histograms

This section describes how to use a histogram to visualize the distribution of a continuous (interval) variable. A histogram is an estimate of the density of data. The range of the variable is divided into a certain number of subintervals, or bins. The height of the bar in each bin is proportional to the number of data points that have values in that bin. A histogram is determined not only by the bin width, but also by the choice of an anchor (or origin).


Example

Histogram Properties

Histograms of Selected Variables

Histogram Binning: Setting Tick Positions

Interactive Histogram Binning

Previous Page | Next Page | Top of Page