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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Deviation

To show:

  • number of times more than the average
  • the difference from 

Use a bar chart to plot deviation from a fixed value, or series of values.

Example of deviation where the value of data is most important

Gross disposable household income (GDHI) per head (£)
England, 2011

A rotated bar chart showing deviation where the value of data is most important, with an annotation to compare England as a whole with individual English regions.

Example of deviation where the amount of change is most important

GDHI per head index comparison with England average
England, 2011

A rotated bar chart only showing the deviation of individual English regions from the average from the whole of England.

Use small multiples to plot deviation for multiple series. The axes should be identical for each small multiple.

Example of deviation with small multiples

A small multiple chart showing deviation for multiple series over time, with an individual chart showing the deviation from the England average for 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.