Histogram in Excel

Histogram excel chart is a data analysis chart which is used to represent data in histograms, in excel 2016 and older versions this chart in inbuilt in excel while for previous versions we used to make this chart manually by using the cumulative frequency method, in histogram chart the data comparison is classified into ranges.

In layman terms, it is a graphical representation of data using bars of different heights. A histogram chart in excel is like a bar chart except that it groups numbers into ranges unlike individual values in a bar chart.

A Histogram in Excel is made up of 5 parts such as Title, Horizontal, Bars (height and width), Vertical, and Legend.

The title describes the information about the histogram
(Horizontal) X-axis grouped intervals (and not the individual points)
Bars have height and width. The height represents the number of times the set of values within an interval occurred. The width represents the length of the interval covered by the bar.
(Vertical) Y-axis is the scale that shows you the frequency of the values within an interval.
Legend describes additional information about the measurements.

Refer to the image given below to understand better. The image shows a sample histogram with each component highlighted.

Popular Course in this category

All in One Excel VBA Bundle (35 Courses with Projects)4.9 (1,353 ratings) 35+ Courses | 120+ Hours | Full Lifetime Access | Certificate of Completion

View Course

Purpose of a Histogram in Excel

The purpose of the histogram chart in Excel is to roughly assess the probability distribution of a given variable by showing the frequencies of observations occurring in a certain range of values.

How to Make a Histogram Chart in Excel?

Divide the entire range of values into a series of intervals.
Count how many values fall into each interval.
The buckets are generally specified as consecutive, non-overlapping intervals of a variable. They must be adjacent and of may be of equal size.
As the adjacent bins are continuous without gaps, the rectangles of a histogram touch each other to indicate that the original variable is continuous.

Different shapes of Histogram Chart in Excel

Bell-shaped
Bimodal
Skewed right
Skewed left
Uniform
Random

Steps to Create a Histogram in Excel

Step 1 – The first step to create a histogram in excel is to select the range of cells containing the data to be presented using the histogram. This would be the input for the Histogram

Step 2 – Click on Recommended Charts as shown in the below figure.

Step 3 – Select Histogram from the presented list.

Step 4 – Click OK

Examples

Histogram Chart in Excel is very simple and easy to use. Let understand the working of with some examples.

You can download this Histogram Chart Excel Template here – Histogram Chart Excel Template

Example #1 – Height of Apple Trees

As shown in the above figure screenshot, the data is about the height of apple trees. The total number of trees are 17. The x-axis of the histogram in excel shows the range of height in cm. Y-axis indicates the number of trees. The chart shows three bars. One for the range 100-250, 2^nd for the range of 250-400 and the 3^rd for the range 400 to 550. So, the width of a bar is 150. The readings are in cm. The vertical axis (Y) shows the count of trees that fall under a given range. E.g. 6 trees are in the range 100-250, 9 trees are in the range 250-400 and 2 trees are in the range 400-550. The legend is the height of the tree represented by green color. So, the bars indicate different height in cm for the recorded trees.

Example #2 – Set of Negative and Positive Values

As shown in the above example, the dataset contains positive as well as negative values. Here also, the Excel auto-calculated the range which is 3.3. The total number of values in the dataset are 19. The 3 bars indicate 3 different ranges and the total number of input values falling under each of the ranges. 5 values are in the range of [-3.9, -0.6], 8 values are ranging from -0.6 to 2.7 and 6 values range from 2.7 to 6.

Pros

The histogram chart in excel is useful where the entities to be measured can be presented in ranges such as height, weight, scales, frequencies, etc.
They give a rough idea of the density of the underlying distribution of the data, and often for density estimation.
They are also used for estimating the probability density function of the underlying variable.
Different intervals can expose different features of the input data in the histogram in excel.

Cons

A histogram chart in excel can present data that is misleading.
Too many blocks can make your analysis tough, while a few can miss out on important data.
A histogram in excel isn’t useful to showcase discrete/categorized entities.

Things to Remember

The Histograms are based on area and not the height of bars.
It is a column-based chart that shows frequency data and is useful to depict continuous data.
While working on the histograms, one must ensure that the bins are not too small or too large. Doing so might lead to incorrect observations.
There is no “ideal” number of bins, and different bin sizes can reveal different features of the data.
The number of bins k can be assigned directly or can be calculated from a suggested bin width has

The Braces Indicate The Ceiling Function in Excel.

which takes the square root of the number of data points in the sample.