A histogram is used to get a general sense of how the observed values are distributed over their range. Features to look for include:
| Mode - |
Is there one central "bump", indicating distribution around a single central value, or are there several modes (peaks) to the distribution? |
| Shape - |
Do the values have a normal (bell curve) distribution around a central value, or does there appear to be a skew in one direction or the other? |
| Outliers - |
Do all the data follow the same general distribution, or are there a few observations far out in the tails of the distribution that don't seem to have the same character as the rest of the data? |