Bar chart
Diagrama de barras
- Date
- 1786 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- William Playfair
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
In his 'Commercial and Political Atlas' (1786), Playfair represented Scottish exports and imports with rectangular bars comparing categories, the first documented appearance of a bar chart. It became the most basic and widespread way to compare categorical data.
What it led to
- Grouped and stacked bar charts
- Variable-width bar charts
- Universal standard for data visualization
Built on
- 15th-century velocity-versus-time diagrams ("The Latitude of Forms")