Horizontal Bar Graph

Horizontal Bar Graph, also known as a Horizontal Bar Chart, is a type of graph used to represent categorical data. In a horizontal bar graph, the categories are displayed along the vertical axis, while the numerical values corresponding to each category are represented by horizontal bars along the horizontal axis.

In this article, we will discuss the Horizontal Bar Graph in detail, including its types, how to read it, and how to plot it.

What is a Horizontal Bar Graph?

A horizontal bar graph is basically represented in the form of rectangular bars with appropriate heights and lengths for the values they stand on the x-axis or y-axis. Even, they are very convenient because you can compare the items represented on a graph with large figures just by looking at them in quick observation.

• “X-Axis” represents the scale or numerical values measurement.
• “Y-Axis” shows the labels or categories that are being compared.

Parts of a Horizontal Bar Graph 

Horizontal bar graph is made up of various essential elements:

• Title: The graph’s title gives an overview of the information being displayed. It expresses the main concept or topic and generally appears at the top of the graph.

• Axes: These graphs basically axes on two points “x-axis” and “y-axis” and their work is to hold the complete representation or data values of the graph.

• Horizontal Bars: The length of these horizontally oriented bars varies according to the related data values. Here, each data value is represented by the bar.

• Labels: It used to indicate and give more details about the variables or categories on the x-axis and the values that correlate to them on the y-axis.

• Scale: Measurement intervals or units for the data values are established by the scale on the y-axis that offers a point of the bars’ height or length that is used to compare data.

Scale of Horizontal Bar Graphs 

A horizontal bar graph’s scale is how the data is shown or measured along the vertical axis and the length of each bar in a horizontal bar graph reflects the value of the data to visualise. Even, It precisely proportionates the data values to represent the data on the scale.

Example of Horizontal Bar Graph

Let’s see an example of Horizontal Bar Graph for the following data:

Sales Data for Products
Product Sales	Sales
Product A	250
Product B	400
Product C	600
Product D	350
Product E	700
Product F	550
Product G	450
Product H	300
Product I	200
Product J	500

Horizonatal bar graph for above mentioned data is given below:

Types of Horizontal Bar Graphs

There are some types of horizontal graphs that are given below:

• Simple Horizontal Bar Graphs
• Double Horizontal Bar Graphs
• Multiple Horizontal Bar Graphs

Let’s discuss about these types in detail as follows.

Simple Horizontal Bar Graphs 

Simple Horizontal Bar Graphs are those bar graphs, which only uses one parameter or variable.

Suppose, If we want to make a comparison between 10 students, you can compare it with students’ marks obtained in a particular subject and total percentage but in this condition, you can only use one subject for comparing either go for marks obtained in a particular subject or total percentage.

For example: Following data represents students and their favorite color.

Color	Number of Students
Blue	10
Yellow	5
Greeen	20
White	15

We can plot the above mentioned data using simple horizontal bar graph as follows:

Double Horizontal Bar Graphs

Double horizontal bar graphs allow you to compare two parameters to form separate groups.

Suppose, we want to make a comparison of 10 students, you can compare it with marks obtained in mathematics and marks obtained in English by comparing two subject marks together you can form the graph but more than two are not allowed in it.

For Example: In a histogram, Let’s give the graphical representation of games love to play by No. of females and No. of males.

Games	Basket Ball	Hockey	Tennis	Cricket
Females	15	10	10	5
Male	10	15	5	20

Double horizontal bar graph for above mentioned data is given as follow:

Multiple Horizontal Bar Graphs

You can compare groups depending on various parameters in several horizontal bar graphs.

Suppose, we want to make a comparison of 10 students, you can compare it with marks obtained in mathematics, English, Science, Hindi and So on. However, you can compare the multiple quantities in one graphical representation that can be two or more than two as well.

For Example: In a histogram comparing marks of English, maths and Science out of 20 of each student.

Subjects/ Students Name	Radhika	Shiv	Sonu	Neha
English	10	15	20	20
Maths	20	10	15	20
Science	15	10	15	15

Multiple horizontal bar graph for the above mentioned data is given below:

How to Plot Horizontal Bar Graphs?

The steps to draw or plot a horizontal bar graph are as follows:

Step 1: Draw horizontal and vertical axes on your graph paper. The horizontal axis will represent the categories or values, while the vertical axis will represent the length of the bars.

Step 2: Label the horizontal axis with the categories or values you have. Make sure to leave enough space between each label for the bars. Label the vertical axis with appropriate values according to your data.

Step 3: For each category or value, draw a horizontal bar with a length corresponding to the value you have. You can use a ruler to ensure accuracy.

Step 4: Optionally, you can write labels or values next to each bar to indicate the exact value represented by the bar.

Step 5: Add a title to your graph to indicate what it represents. You can also label the horizontal and vertical axes for clarity.

Note: For representation of the multiple parameter measuring you can use different colours for different parameter bars.

For Example: Data for temperature for a week is given as follows:

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thrusday	Friday	Saturday
Temperature (℃)	25	20	24	23	18	24	18

Horizontal bar graph for the data is given below:

How to Read a Horizontal Bar Graph?

You can effectively read a Horizontal Bar Graph in the following steps;

• Go through, the title information that the graph is representing read and comprehend it well.
• Then, take a look at the both axes of the graph. the “x-axis” reflects the variables or categories being compared and the “y-axis” shows the scale or values connected to each category.
• After that, determine which categories or variables are being represented, and read the labels or names on the x-axis.
• Then, Look at the graph’s bars, which show the data values for each category.
• Now, comes to the y-axis to ascertain the scale or measurement applied to the data values for looking at the values or intervals.
• Lastly, compare the bars by Examining the connections and patterns found in the graph and highlighting them in categories of large-scale values or small-scale values.

For Example: We can infer that 1 unit is equal to 5 students, and the representation of the graph through every major Callout is needed to maintain the horizontal graphs.

Read More,

• Graphical Representation of Data
• Bar Graph
• Pie Chart

Solved Examples On Horizontal Bar Graph

Example 1: The data of the number of children to tuition for four days is shown below. Draw a horizontal bar graph to display the same. Also, what type of horizontal bar graph would you draw? 

Days	No. of Children
Monday	4
Tuesday	2
Wednesday	4
Thursday	3

Solution:

There is only one parameter. So, we will draw a Simple bar graph over here;

Example 2: The double horizontal bar graph below represents the number of books read by two different groups of students over the span of a year. [Group A will be represented by the green colour bar and Group B will be represented by the blue colour bar.]

1. Which group of students read more books on Day 2?
2. What was the difference in the number of books read by Group A and Group B on Day 4?
3. On which day did both groups read the same number of books?

Solution:

1. Group A students read more books on day 2.

2. Group A students read 2 books on Day 4
Group B students read 8 books on Day 4.

The difference of 6 additional books was more readen by Group B.

3. On day 5 both groups read the same number of books.

Example 3: The multiple horizontal bar graph below illustrates the distribution of marks obtained by each student in English, mathematics and science. [ English marks are represented by a white parameter bar, Mathematics marks are represented by a blue parameter bar and Science marks are represented by a Pink parameter bar.

1. How many marks were obtained out of 100 by Neha in English?
2. Who scored the highest marks in Mathematics?
3. Name the students who obtained less than 80 in Science.

Solution:

1. 60 marks obtained by Neha in English.

2. Anu scored the highest marks in mathematics.

3. Neha and Maya obtained less than 80 in Science.

Practice Problems On Horizontal Bar Graph

1. By using the horizontal bar graph below represents the number of cars sold by a dealership in different months of the year.

Months	No. of Cars
April	50
May	40
June	35
July	60

• In which month were the most cars sold?
• How many cars were sold in May?
• If the dealership sold a total of 185 cars in the 4 months, what percentage of the total sales occurred in May?

2. Imagine you surveyed 300 people to know which type of fruits are most liked by people.

Fruits	Apple	Orange	Grapes	Mango	Kiwi	Melon
Male	40	30	10	25	35	5
Female	30	40	5	25	10	35

Represent it in a double horizontal bar graph.

3. Evaluate the seasonal temperature from the weather forecasting report of the last week of the daytime and Record it in the form of a graphical representation.

Horizontal Bar Graph FAQs

What is a horizontal bar graph?

A horizontal bar graph is a visual representation of a given data set where the size of each observed value is represented by horizontal bars on graphs that run along the x-axis.

Write any two advantages of using a horizontal bar graph.

The two advantages of using a horizontal bar graph are given below:

• Horizontal bar graphs covered lengthy category labels more effectively than vertical bar graphs.
• It clear the straightforward comparisons between categories.

Name the types of horizontal bar graphs.

There are three types of horizontal bar graph that are given below:

• Simple Horizontal Bar Graphs
• Double Horizontal Bar Graphs
• Multiple Horizontal Bar Graphs

How do you create a horizontal bar graph?

Identifying the categories and their related values, mark the categories along the vertical axis by drawing horizontal bars whose lengths are proportionate to the values this process is used to create a horizontal bar graph.

What are double horizontal bar graphs?

Double horizontal bar graphs allow viewers for direct comparison between two groups or categories by showing two sets of data side by side.

What is the use of a horizontal bar graph?

It is used to compare quantities or frequencies between categories and visually display categorical data that works well for presenting lengthy category labels or for highlighting comparisons.