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Types of Graphs and Charts Used In Daily Life

A picture is worth a thousand words, and so are the different types of graphs and charts. Graphs or charts offer much...

Written by Niel Patel · 4 min read >
Mosaic or Mekko Charts

A picture is worth a thousand words, and so are the different types of graphs and charts. Graphs or charts offer much information as with several words.   

Have you ever thought of graphs and charts? What you ought to know about graphs and charts is that there are different types of graphs and charts used to represent data. They are mainly used in different areas such as data science, statistics, business math, health, economics, and others.

There are several types of graphs and charts used in daily life. Some of the most common ones are:

  1. Bar Graphs: These are used to compare different data sets or to track changes over time.
  2. Line Graphs: Track changes over time and are ideal for showing trends.
  3. Pie Charts: Used to show the proportion of a whole, and are often used to show market shares or other types of data that can be divided into parts.
  4. Scatter Plots: To present the relationship between two variables, and are useful for identifying trends or patterns in data.
  5. Histograms: Used to distribute the set of data, and are useful for identifying patterns and trends in large data sets.
  6. Flowcharts: Show the flow of a process or procedure, and are useful for illustrating complex systems or concepts.
  7. Gantt Charts: It shows the timeline of a project or task, and are useful for tracking progress and identifying potential issues or delays.
  8. Radar Charts: These are used to compare multiple variables and are useful for showing the strengths and weaknesses of a particular subject or product.

Incorporating data visualization, such as graphs and charts, into your tasks is essential, especially when working with numbers. This is regardless of whatever you are generating. Having these visuals will help you to represent your data.

Here’s why:

It may significantly aid your audience in understanding your data more by getting graphs and charts libraries.

To find out more about the types of graphs and charts that can be used in your industry, I will explore more different types of graphs and charts that are used daily in life. 

If this sounds interesting, then keep on reading the graphs and charts examples below.

Line Graphs

Line Graphs
Line Graphs

Line graphs are mostly used to reflect data and in particular, trends over time. It portrays a point value for each data or category, joined by a line. You can also use the data from a pie chart to draw a line graph.

As a business owner, you can use a line graph to show annual sales over a certain time, like ten consecutive years.

As you see, line graphs are mainly beneficial for identifying variables at a certain level of time, revenue, growth, and sales. This depends on the research done.

Bar Graph

Bar Graph
Bar Graph

This is the easiest and most direct way to match various categories of data.

It is the most widely used and recognized graph.

That’s not all; Bar graphs offer a great visual presentation of nearly all types of data.

You may use a bar graph to read the information on how each category behaves even without referring back to the data table.

This type of graph is commonly used  in the insurance industry, such as when comparing the average cost of life insurance by age and gender.

Best of all, you may draw bar graph lines, either vertical or horizontal, since it doesn’t make any difference.

Pie Charts

Pie Charts
Pie Charts

A pie chart is characterized as a circle or a pie that is cut into different sections or segments. These segments represent data. It also shows how a whole number may be broken into parts.  

For instance, if you don’t know about your business and are worried about how sales or revenue appeared to have dropped over the years, a pie chart is the best option to use.

Pie charts display percentages of the whole number; therefore, your total is 100%.

Each segment of the pie chart is appropriately and proportionally cut according to the size of the percentage it represents. 

As if that’s not enough, pie charts may be ideal when you are comparing all sorts of quantities, such as groups, values, rates, and survey inventories, among others.

Mosaic or Mekko Charts

Mosaic or Mekko Charts
Mosaic or Mekko Charts

Basic lines, pie charts, and bars are excellent models whenever you match one or two variables in just a few categories.   But what do you think may happen when you require comparing several variables or groupings at the same time? And also, What if all those variables are not even numeric?

A Mekko or Mosaic– chart may be the best choice.

A Mosaic chart allows you, for instance, as a marketer, to show all the variables straightforwardly and clearly. One of the axes on the chart shows the categories that are being represented.

The color and the size of each section on the Mekko chart match with the segment it represents, just as it is depicted in the chart’s data.

Sankey charts

Oftentimes in businesses and all other industries, you may find several processes that you have to use diagrams. A Sankey chart helps you to come up with these processes that are well displayed in a step-by-step mode that is from the start to the end.

This Turns out to be the best way to analyze, document, design, and manage various processes.

Sankey charts may have multiple beginnings and finishes as well as several pathways in between. In my own experience,  many people use simple Sankey charts.

This is represented by a document with a basic process like from 1-10  or A–C.

In addition, Sankey chart diagrams are mostly used to demonstrate more complex systems that show many choices, conditions, or decisions at the end of each section.

Here’s why:

Every time a condition is encountered, the Sankey chart diagram offers various options; therefore, each path carries on subsequent choice.

What are the important types of graphs and charts?

Graphs and charts are significant for the reason that they help you to analyze data quickly as well as see relationships.  
They are used to simplify data that your audience may easily understand and remember.

When can you use Bar Charts?

Whenever you have more than ten valuables or categories, you need to compare them. For instance, if your categories, names, or labels are long, a Bar chart makes it more presentable to the audience.

When can you use Pie Charts?

These are best used when you want to show part or sectional comparisons. This is because you can identify the largest and smallest section within a given data set.

Wrap up

By now, you should have known which types of graphs and charts examples that may be the best options for your industry.

No matter the way you pick out to represent your data and master these skills to produce different types of graphs and charts, it can tell a thousand words about your industry. It is the best and most effective way to demonstrate your data and the relationship between them.

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