Reading Histograms

What is a Histogram?

A histogram is a graphical representation of data that is organized into intervals, or bins, along with the frequency or count of observations falling into each bin.

It provides a visual summary of the distribution of a dataset, showing the patterns and characteristics of the data.

Using a histogram worksheet provides practical experience in data analysis, visualization, and interpretation. It strengthens your data literacy skills and empowers you to make better-informed decisions based on the insights derived from histograms.

Why do you use a Histogram?

A histogram is an illustrative way to represent particular data. It is shown in vertical bar formation for a particular input against the number of continuous data given, which is said to be the frequency in each category.

A histogram is a single block graph of rectangles where the area of each rectangle will be proportional to the frequency.

Solved Examples

Example 1

The points scored by John in his school test were marked in 10 for subjects Math, English, Science, and French as 5, 6, 8, and 7 respectively. Represent the above data in a histogram.

Solution

Example 2

The following histogram shows the number of singers who sang music albums in a year. Find the following:

1. Highest number of songs sung in a year.
2. The least number of songs sung.
3. Number of songs 14 singers sang.
4. How many singers sang 3-4 songs?

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In such a pictorial representation it is easy to identify and find out, calculate a specific detail instead of analyzing the whole data.

Solution:

1. Grey colored bar on the graph states that 6 is the highest number of songs sung.
2. Purple colored bar denotes 1 is the least number of songs sung.
3. 5-6 songs were sung by 14 singers.
4. 11 singers sang 3-4 songs.

Example 3

Following is the histogram view of data showing the list of people who order home utilities online.

Basic items sold online are furniture, kitchen appliances, mobile phones, and groceries.

• Find the product that is sold largely.
• How many people buy groceries online?

Solution

• The product which is sold largely is kitchen appliances.
• Between 0-200 people buy groceries online.

Practice Questions

Question 1

Use the histogram to identify how long a student spends time on gadgets on school off days.

a. How many students spend only 5-10 hours?

b. How long do 4 students spend on gadgets?

c. Number of students spending the maximum number of hours.

Question 2

Sheila collected the details of no. of novels sold in a book fair and made a histogram of the data which showed the no. of books sold between 20-200 dollars.

a. Draw a histogram if the following is the data collected.

b. How many books were sold between $150 and $105?