Statistical graphics

Statistical graphics, also known as statistical graphical techniques, are graphics used in the field of
statistics for data visualization.

Overview
Whereas statistics and data analysis procedures generally yield their output in numeric or tabular form,
graphical techniques allow such results to be displayed in some sort of pictorial form. They include plots
such as scatter plots, histograms, probability plots, spaghetti plots, residual plots, box plots, block plots and
biplots.[1]

Exploratory data analysis (EDA) relies heavily on such techniques. They can also provide insight into a
data set to help with testing assumptions, model selection and regression model validation, estimator
selection, relationship identification, factor effect determination, and outlier detection. In addition, the
choice of appropriate statistical graphics can provide a convincing means of communicating the underlying
message that is present in the data to others.[1]

Graphical statistical methods have four objectives:[2]

The exploration of the content of a data set

The use to find structure in data
Checking assumptions in statistical models
Communicate the results of an analysis.

If one is not using statistical graphics, then one is forfeiting insight into one or more aspects of the
underlying structure of the data.

History
Statistical graphics have been central to the development of science and date to the earliest attempts to
analyse data. Many familiar forms, including bivariate plots, statistical maps, bar charts, and coordinate
paper were used in the 18th century. Statistical graphics developed through attention to four problems:[3]

Spatial organization in the 17th and 18th century

Discrete comparison in the 18th and early 19th century
Continuous distribution in the 19th century and
Multivariate distribution and correlation in the late 19th and 20th century.

Since the 1970s statistical graphics have been re-emerging as an important analytic tool with the
revitalisation of computer graphics and related technologies.[3]

Examples
Famous graphics were designed by:
 William Playfair who produced what could be called the first
line, bar, pie, and area charts. For example, in 1786 he
published the well known diagram that depicts the evolution of
England's imports and exports,[4]
Florence Nightingale, who used statistical graphics to
persuade the British Government to improve army hygiene,[5]
John Snow who plotted deaths from cholera in London in 1854
to detect the source of the disease,[6] and William Playfair's trade-
Charles Joseph Minard who designed a large portfolio of maps balance time-series chart,
of which the one depicting Napoleon's campaign in Russia is published in his Commercial
the best known.[7] and Political Atlas, 1786

See the plots page for many more examples of statistical graphics.

See also
Data Presentation Architecture
List of graphical methods
Visual inspection
Chart
List of charting software
John Snow's Cholera map in
dot style, 1854.
References
Citations

1. "The Role of Graphics" (http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section1/eda15.htm).

NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of Statistical Methods. 2003–2010. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
2. Jacoby, William G. (1997). Statistical Graphics for Univariate and Bivariate Data: Statistical
Graphics. pp. 2–4.
3. James R. Beniger and Dorothy L. Robyn (1978). "Quantitative graphics in statistics: A brief
history". In: The American Statistician. 32: pp. 1–11.
4. Tufte, Edward (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (https://archive.org/deta
ils/visualdisplayofq0000tuft). Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press. ISBN 0961392142.
5. Small, Hugh. "Florence Nightingale's statistical diagrams" (http://www.florence-nightingale-a
venging-angel.co.uk/GraphicsPaper/Graphics.htm).
6. Crosier, Scott. "John Snow: The London Cholera Epidemic of 1854" (http://webprojects.oit.n
csu.edu/project/bio183de/Black/science/science_reading/8.html). University of California,
Santa Barbara.
7. Corbett, John. "Charles Joseph Minard: Mapping Napoleon's March, 1861" (http://www.csis
s.org/classics/content/58). Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science. Retrieved
21 September 2014.

Attribution
  This article incorporates public domain material from the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(https://www.nist.gov).

Further reading
Cleveland, W. S. (1993). Visualizing Data (https://archive.org/details/visualizingdata00will).
Summit, NJ, USA: Hobart Press. ISBN 0-9634884-0-6.
Cleveland, W. S. (1994). The Elements of Graphing Data. Summit, NJ, USA: Hobart Press.
ISBN 0-9634884-1-4.
Lewi, Paul J. (2006). Speaking of Graphics (http://www.datascope.be/sog.htm).
Tufte, Edward R. (2001) [1983]. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (https://archiv
e.org/details/visualdisplayofq00tuft) (2nd ed.). Cheshire, CT, USA: Graphics Press. ISBN 0-
9613921-4-2.
Tufte, Edward R. (1992) [1990]. Envisioning Information (https://archive.org/details/envisioni
nginfor0000tuft). Cheshire, CT, USA: Graphics Press. ISBN 0-9613921-1-8.

External links
Trend Compass (https://web.archive.org/web/20101124172040/http://www.epicsyst.com/test/
v2/mastercard_vs_visa/)
Alphabetic gallery of graphical techniques (http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/secti
on3/eda33.htm)
DataScope a website devoted to data visualization and statistical graphics (http://www.datas
cope.be/)

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