STATISTICS 1

MODULE 2.0 DISPLAYING QUALITATIVE VARIABLES

Lesson 2.2 Bar Graphs
Time Limit 30 minutes

TARGET
At the end of this lesson, the learner is expected to:
✓ identify the appropriate use of bar graphs;
✓ create bar graphs to display distribution of a categorical variable using
technology; and
✓ describe the distribution of a categorical variable from bar graphs.

HOOK
The previous lesson mentioned that there are three methods in presenting
data: textual, tabular, and graphical. Particularly, you learned how to construct the
frequency distribution table for a categorical variable.
Now, we will be looking into the graphical presentation of categorical variables. There are
several available graphs to display our data as a good visualization. But the question is, is it always the
right graph? Is it appropriate for the variable of interest? What information can we get just by looking
at these graphs?
This lesson will focus on one of the graphical presentations for categorical data, the bar graph.
We will be discussing how to create bar graphs using technology and describe the distribution based on
the graphs drawn.

IGNITE
Presenting data using graphs is very useful in statistics. It is imperative that
we display accurate information on the graph based on our data. Sometimes, people
tend to misuse data presentation to mislead people into thinking what they want to
display and not what the real data represent. A complete graph should consist of the
following: title, axes labels, and proper axis scaling.
The bar graph uses vertical or horizontal bars whose heights or lengths represent the
frequencies of the data. A bar graph is used to emphasize the actual frequency for each category. A bar
graph shows the categories or classes of a given variable on one axis and shows the frequency on the
other. It is used to easily recognize patterns as opposed to just looking into a table. It helps the reader
to identify the largest and smallest categories in terms of frequencies in the distribution.
One limitation of the bar graph is if there are several categories which contributes to the graph
looking crowded. Another limitation of this graph is when the range of numbers is wide as it can give
emphasis on the highest frequency and make the difference between the other values look small.
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Introduction to Statistics
 To illustrate the use of technology in creating a bar graph, we will be using the same example
as in the previous lesson. The table below shows the frequency distribution pertaining to the blood type
of each student in your class.

Classes Frequency Relative frequency

A 7 7
30
or 0.2333
B 8 4
or 0.2667
15
O 13 13
30
or 0.4333
AB 2 1
or 0.0667
15
Total 30 1.00
Table 1. Frequency Distribution Table for the Blood Types of a Class

The following are the steps in constructing a bar graph:

1. Open your data in excel. On this case, we have here the last step from the previous lesson.

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Introduction to Statistics
2. Highlight the Classes and Frequency column on the table, excluding the total.

3. On the menu bar, click Insert → Bar Chart. It will automatically generate the bar graph for the
selected data.

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Introduction to Statistics
4. Notice that the graph is not complete. The axes labels are still missing. Click the Add Chart Element
to view other options for the graph and make the axes titles visible.

5. From here, you can click the text box on the title to edit (i.e., we replace Frequency with Blood
Type Distribution of Section). You can directly copy the graph on your clipboard.

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Introduction to Statistics
Your bar graph of the given example after following all the instructions above should look like the
figure below.

Blood Type Distribution of Section

14

12 13

10
Frequency

8
8
6 7

2
2
0
A AB B O
Blood Type

Based on this bar graph, what can you say about the distribution of blood type of your class?
What is the largest and smallest category? The answers to these questions are equivalent to having the
textual interpretation of the given data set which is one of the three methods in presenting data as
mentioned earlier. This is shown below.
In a class of 30 students, 13 have O as their blood type. Eight students have blood
type B and seven students have blood type A. The least category is AB, with only two
students having this blood type while O is the largest category in terms of frequency.

NAVIGATE
To find out how much you have learned from this lesson, utilizing the data set
from Lesson 2.1 follow the instructions below and answer the questions. This
exercise will be a graded activity.
The Titanic data set provides information on the fate of passengers on the fatal maiden voyage of the
ocean liner "Titanic", summarized according to economic status (class), age, sex, and survival.
✓ Create a bar graph corresponding to the variable you have chosen on the previous exercise.
Make sure to check if your graph is complete or it contains the following features: title, axes
labels, and proper axis scaling.
✓ Write a short textual interpretation of the graph you created. You may create a textbox where
you can place your answer.
✓ Save a new copy of the file with your answers on the same sheet.
✓ Rename your file with the following format: Stat Q1 M2 L2.2 CLASS CODE (e.g., Stat Q1
M2 L2.2 Be01).
✓ Submit your answer (excel file) via email to _____________________ (online submission) or
save it on the flash disk provided (offline submission).
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Introduction to Statistics
 KNOT
In summary, we covered in this lesson the bar graph.
✓ Bar graph is used to represent the classes on a categorical variable.
✓ It is useful to identify pattern or trends of a distribution.
✓ It can easily identify the largest and smallest categories, and can easily compare the frequencies
between or among categories.
✓ It may not be appropriate to use bar graph with a lot of categories or wide range of numbers between
categories.
✓ Use MS Excel to generate a bar graph using its built-in functions.
✓ Make sure to check if your graph is complete with its title, axis labels, and proper scaling.
✓ A textual interpretation is useful for the readers to understand the data on the graph easier.

References:
1. Bluman, A.G. (2014). Elementary Statistics: A step by step approach (9th Edition). Mc-Graw Hill
2. De Veaux, R.D., Velleman, P.F., & Bock, D.E. (2014). Intro stats (New International Edition).
Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited

Prepared by: Mark Louvelle Parulan Reviewed by: Myrna B. Libutaque

Position: SST I Position: SST V
Campus: PSHS-MC Campus: PSHS-WVC

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Introduction to Statistics