Table of contents

  1. Choosing the correct chart
  2. Choice of data
  3. Comparing data sets – shared horizons
  4. Comparisons of magnitude (size)
  5. Time series
  6. Bar charts for time series
  7. Line charts for time series
  8. Dot plot with line for time series
  9. Multiple time series
  10. Small changes over time, not starting the y-axis at zero
  11. Ranking
  12. Part-to-whole
  13. Deviation
  14. Distribution
  15. Correlation

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Choosing the correct chart

There are eight common relationships that charts display. Prioritise what you want to highlight in the data and choose the chart type accordingly.

The eight common relationships within data are the following:

  • comparisons of magnitude (size)
  • time series
  • ranking
  • part-to-whole
  • deviation
  • distribution
  • correlation
  • spatial (maps will be covered separately in phase 4)