Examples · Dot plot

Dot plot examples

A dot plot draws one dot per observation and stacks them over their value — no bars, no areas, only the raw count made visible. It's the most honest small-data chart there is: eleven answers means eleven dots, and everyone in the room can recount them.

When to use it

Small whole-number counts: survey answers, ratings, occurrences
Classrooms and workshops — the chart is literally countable
When every single observation should stay visible

Not the right shape?

Large values or big datasets — five hundred dots is a texture, not a chart. Bin them into a histogram instead (the dot plot maker switches automatically past a range of 20).

Real-world examples

Satisfaction ratings

Five options, forty answers, one glance: the mode sits at 4, and the two unhappy dots are individually visible.

Open in maker with this data

View the spec

{
  "type": "dotplot",
  "theme": "editorial",
  "title": "Workshop rating, 1–5",
  "source": "Feedback forms, 40 answers",
  "data": {
    "labels": [
      "1",
      "2",
      "3",
      "4",
      "5"
    ],
    "series": [
      {
        "name": "Answers",
        "values": [
          1,
          1,
          8,
          19,
          11
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Household sizes on one street

Counts of counts: each dot is a household, each column a size. The outlier at seven is one real, findable house.

Open in maker with this data

View the spec

{
  "type": "dotplot",
  "theme": "ink",
  "title": "People per household",
  "source": "One street's census, 31 homes",
  "data": {
    "labels": [
      "1",
      "2",
      "3",
      "4",
      "5",
      "6",
      "7"
    ],
    "series": [
      {
        "name": "Households",
        "values": [
          6,
          10,
          7,
          5,
          1,
          1,
          1
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Open this chart in a maker Dot plot maker from scratch

Questions people ask

What is a dot plot?

A chart that stacks one dot per observation above its value on a number line. Where a bar chart shows a magnitude, a dot plot shows the individual observations that make it up — which is why teachers and workshop facilitators reach for it.

Dot plot or histogram?

Same question — 'how do values distribute?' — at different scales. Keep dots while the counts stay small enough to see individually (a few dozen); switch to a histogram when the data outgrows that, which is exactly what the dot plot maker does past a range of 20.