What is the difference between histogram and bar graph?
Statistical analysis is represented by a bar graph, histogram, and pie chart, diagrammatic and tabular presentation among many others.
The lesson provides the core difference between histogram and bar graph with a comparison table for easier understanding.
What Is An Histogram?
A histogram is a bar chart presenting statistical information by use of bars to show the frequency distribution of continuous data.
The bars show the number of observations that lie in-between the range of values. This range of values are known as class limits or bins.
What Is A Bar Graph?
A bar graph is a chart that shows the distinction between categories of data. The data is represented by the rectangular bars of the same width but vary in length or height.
The length of the bar represents the values while the width represents the data in each category. The bars do not touch each other since they indicate different entities.
Comparison Chart: Histogram Vs Bar Graph
| Basic Terms | Histogram | Bar Graph |
| Meaning | It is a graphical representation of data in rectangular bars that display frequency numerical data | It is a diagrammatical presentation of data by the use of bars to compare different categories of data. |
| Indicates | Distribution of non-discrete variables | The distinction of discrete variables |
| Spaces | Bars tend to touch each other | Bars do not touch each other |
| Elements | Grouped together into entities | Grouped different into individual entities |
| Reordering of data | No | Yes |
| Width of bars | Not the same | Same |
Core Differences between Histogram and Bar Graph
- The width of the histogram tends to vary while that of the bar graph is the same.
- The histogram has no spaces between the bars whereas the bar graph has spaces between the bars.
- The histogram represents quantitative data whereas bar graphs represent categorical data
- The elements in the histogram are grouped together as entities whereas elements in bar graphs are grouped individually.
- Histogram show distribution of non-discrete variables while bar graph show the distribution of discrete variables
- Histogram refers to the graphical representation of data by use of bars to show frequency distribution while bar graph refers to the pictorial presentation of data by use of bars to compare different categories of data
- The bars of the bar graph can be reordered while those of the histogram cannot.
Comparison Video
Summary
The core difference between the histogram and bar graph is that the bar graph refers to pictorial in the form of spaced bars to depict numerical data while histogram refers to graphical representation in the form of bars with no spaces between them to depict frequency distributions.