Bar Graph - How to Draw a Bar Graph & Examples

Last Updated : 22 Jan, 2025

A bar graph, also known as a bar chart, visually represents categorical data using rectangular bars. The height or length of each bar corresponds to the value it represents. These bars can be arranged vertically or horizontally. When plotted vertically, the bar chart is often referred to as a column chart.

Key elements of a bar graph include:

Axes: Most bar graphs have two axes.
- The x-axis typically lists the categories being compared, and the y-axis represents the measured values.
Bars: Each bar’s length or height varies according to the data it represents.
Labels: Categories and values are labelled to make the data easy to understand.
Title: The title of the bar graph provides an overview of what the data represents.
Legend: Explains the meaning of different colours or patterns if multiple data sets are presented.
Scale: The units or intervals used on the axes to measure and represent the data accurately.

Table of Content

Advantages of Bar Chart

Types of Bar Graphs

The different types of bar graph such as

Vertical Bar Graph,
Horizontal Bar Graph,
Grouped Bar Graph

Let's discuss these in detail.

Vertical Bar Graph

Vertical bar graph is a type of data visualization technique used to represent data using vertical bars or columns. It is also known as a vertical bar chart.

Vertical Bar Graphs are the most common bar graph we come across. The bars of grouped data in vertical bar graphs lie vertically.
When dealing with long category names, it's easier to use Horizontal Bar Graphs. In Vertical Bar Graphs, the x-axis space is limited, making it challenging to display lengthy category names.

Vertical Bar Graph Representation — Illustration of Vertical Bar Graph

Horizontal Bar Graph

Horizontal bar graphs are the graphs that have their rectangular bars lying horizontally. This means that the frequency of the data lie on the x-axis while the categories of the data lie on the y-axis.

Choose Horizontal Bar Graphs when dealing with long category names, as they work better when there isn't enough space on the x-axis.

Horizontal Bar Graph Representation — Horizontal Bar Graph Illustration

Grouped Bar Graph

Grouped bar graphs are the bar charts in which multiple sets of data items are compared, with a single color used to denote a specific series across all sets. It is also called the clustered bar graph.

A grouped bar graph compares different sets of data items. It uses a single color to represent each series within the set.

The grouped bar graph is used to represent the discrete value for more than one object that shares the same category. As with basic Bar charts, both vertical and horizontal versions of grouped bar charts are available.
The grouped bar graph can be represented using both vertical and horizontal bar charts.

Here is a diagram illustrating Grouped Bar Graph.

Grouped Bar Graph Representation — Illustration of Grouped Bar Graph

Properties of Bar Graph

Key properties of Bar Graph are mentioned below:

Every bar graph has a uniform width which is used to analyze data according to different points.
It can be either horizontal or vertical.
Every bar graph has two axes, one for the Graph and the other for the quantity of the data.
The graph shows the comparison of data over a particular time.

How to Draw a Bar Graph?

Let's understand drawing a bar graph with an example of 5 students (A, B, C, D, E) and their weights: 45, 35, 25, 38, 40. We will have to follow a sequence of steps.

Here is a stepwise-process of creating bar graphs.

Step 1: First decide the title of the Bar Graph.
Step 2: Draw the x-axis(horizontal) and y-axis(vertical) and plot a graph using two axes.
Step 3: Now, Give name to X-axis and Y-axis and label both the axes.
Step 4: then just draw rectangular bars respectively according to their weight.
Step 5: Finally, draw the bar graph which represents the weight of the five students.

Difference between Line Graph, Bar Graph, Histogram and Pie Chart

The key difference between Bar Graph, Line graph , Histogram and Pie Chart is defined below:

Bar Graph	Line Graph	Histogram	Pie Chart
Discrete data types	Uses a single line connecting points	Continuous data types	Used to show the composition of a whole
Bars of equal width	Points connected in a series	Bars can have unequal width	Circle divided into section
compare values among different items	Used tracking changes in data over time	To show the distribution of a continuous variable	Typically used for categorical or percentage data
Data is represented with different heights of the bars	Shown through the rise and fall of the line	Height of the bars represent data	Sections of circle represent data
Represents categories or groups	Best for continuous data	Represents frequency distribution of data	Typically represents positive values
Used for data in different classes	Emphasizes trends and changes over time	Used for data within the same class	No axes, labels are placed outside the pie slices
To compare different categories or groups	Used for showing stock price changes over time	To show the distribution of a continuous variable	Labels are placed next to or inside each pie slice

Uses of Bar Graph / Applications of Bar Graphs in Real-Life

Some of the most important applications of Bar Graph are:

In education, they help students visualize and understand numerical data.
Bar graphs are handy for businesses. They help with financial analysis, market research, and presenting data like quarterly sales, customer demographics, or product comparisons.
In science, bar graphs are used to display and compare data from experiments or research studies.
They effectively present survey results, including responses to different questions or options.
They are used to display performance metrics in various fields, including sports, education, and business.
Governments and organizations use bar graphs to report on data like population statistics, environmental data, etc.

Advantages of Bar Chart

It represents the data in a graphical form, which is easier to understand.
It helps in analyzing the data at a glance.
It displays each information separately which is easier to understand.
It summarize a large data set in visual from.
It displays relative data or proportion.

Bar Graph Examples

To understand Bar graphs, let's solve some example questions on Bar Graph.

Example 1: Plot a Bar graph for the following data:

Cities	Population( in Millions)
New Delhi	35
Noida	10
Mumbai	25
Jaipur	5
Gurgaon	12

Solution: The Bar Graph for the above data is as follows:

Example 2: Plot the Bar Graph For the following Data:

Fruits	Classes (No. of students)
	A	B	C
Apple	22	18	20
Banana	16	20	15
Mango	20	25	30
Litchi	24	30	15

Solution: The Grouped Bar Graph of the above data are as follows:

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Bar Graph - How to Draw a Bar Graph & Examples

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Article Tags :

Bar Graph - How to Draw a Bar Graph & Examples

Types of Bar Graphs

Vertical Bar Graph

Horizontal Bar Graph

Grouped Bar Graph

Properties of Bar Graph

How to Draw a Bar Graph?

Difference between Line Graph, Bar Graph, Histogram and Pie Chart

Uses of Bar Graph / Applications of Bar Graphs in Real-Life

Advantages of Bar Chart

Bar Graph Examples

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