Describing and Interpreting graphs, charts and tables Data Analysis Describing and Interpreting graphs, charts and tables From: http://www.essaybuilder.net/LineGraphs.html

Graphs Line graphs describe change. 1. What changed? 2. How did it change? 3. How much did it change? Population of Denmark increased from 1996 to 2007. It increased steadily. The population in 1996 was 5.25 million and in 2007 it was 5.45 million. So, there was an increase of 0.2 million or 200,000 people.

Bar Charts Bar and column charts show similarities and differences. When describing these charts you need to make comparisons.

Bar Charts To write a short description of this graph ask yourself (and answer!) the following questions: What exactly does the chart show? (Use the chart title to help you answer this question) What are the axes and what are the units? What similarities are there? Is it possible to put some of the columns into one or more groups? What differences are there? Answering these questions will help you to write a short description of this simple column chart.

Bar Charts Here is an example: This chart shows the populations of some European countries in 2007. The country with the largest population is Germany, with over 80 million people whereas Estonia has the smallest population, at little more than a million. Apart from Germany, the largest countries are Spain, France and Italy with populations ranging from about forty-four to sixty-three million. Together, the four largest countries account for over eighty per cent of the population of the countries shown. Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia and Ireland all have populations or ten million or less, while Greece has a population of about eleven million.

Pie Charts Pie Charts normally show proportion, which can be measured in percentages or fractions.

Charts Describing Chart: This chart shows the relative size of populations of countries of the European Union in 2007. The country with the largest population was Germany with 16.6% of the European Union's population. We can also see that the second largest population was that of France with 12.8% of the population.

Percentage of women in tertiary education. Tables Percentage of women in tertiary education. Tables show detailed data. So, when observing data in a table you need to look carefully and make the data ‘meaningful’ with your descriptions/interpretations.

Tables All countries except Japan women made up significantly more than half of the student population in tertiary education. The country with the highest percentage of women in tertiary education was Iceland and this was also the country with the largest increase, rising from 60% to 64.9%. The largest percentage change was that of Bulgaria, from 60.9% to 52.1%, a 14.4% drop. The lowest rise was in Finland, where, although the percentage fluctuated over the period in question, the percentage rose from 53.5 to 53.6.