Histogram

Example of a histogram of 100 normally distributed random values

A histogram is a concept from statistics. It is a graphical display that tells us about the distribution of the samples involved. They are commonly a picture made from a table with many categories. The table tells how many samples there are in each category.

The word histogram is derived from histos and gramma in Greek. Histos means web or mast. Gramma means drawing, record or writing. A histogram of something is therefore, etymologically speaking, a drawing of the web of this something.

A histogram is a graphical representation of the distribution of numerical data. It is a type of bar chart that shows the frequency or number of observations within different numerical ranges, called bins. The bins are usually specified as consecutive, non-overlapping intervals of a variable. The histogram provides a visual representation of the distribution of the data, showing the number of observations that fall within each bin.

Similar ideas

The histogram is one of the seven basic tools of quality control, which also include the Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, cause-and-effect diagram, flowchart, and scatter diagram.

A population pyramid is two histograms.

A generalization of the histogram is kernel smoothing techniques. This will construct a smooth probability density function from the supplied data.

Histogram Media

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  plot generated using R from simulated data

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  Histogram of travel time (to work), US 2000 census. Area under the curve equals the total number of cases. This diagram uses Q/width from the table.

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  An ordinary and a cumulative histogram of the same data. The data shown is a random sample of 10,000 points from a normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.

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  Histogram and density function for a Gumbel distribution

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  Daisyhistogram