Data Visualization Examples

Our List of the Top Data Visualization Examples

These real-world examples show how data visualization tools can make information easier to share.

Bar Chart: U.S. Government Spending

Where does your tax money go? This official website uses a bar chart to show the top spending categories, along with a percentage for each.

This data visualization format allows readers to immediately identify the categories where the government spends the most thanks to the length of the bars. This format can also be helpful for tracking changes over time.

Bar charts are a common data visualization format that most people are familiar with. When in doubt, it’s a great go-to format for presenting visual information to an audience. 

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Line Chart: Share of Mobile Traffic

Are you reading this on mobile? If yes, you belong to the 58% of global traffic that now comes from mobile devices, according to this line chart.

Line charts are a data visualization tool that can show how a trend evolves over time. It’s a common format for sharing financial information. It’s a great way to draw attention to ups and downs.

In the data visualization example listed above, the line chart makes the sharp increase in mobile traffic immediately noticeable.

Scatter Plot: Classic Movie Costs and Revenues

This scatter plot uses cost and revenue data from classic movies released in the 1930s and 1940s. Each dot on the graph corresponds to a movie, and readers can look at the dot’s position along two axes to get an idea of how much the movie cost and how much it generated in profits.

Scatter plots are an interesting data visualization tool when working with datasets that involve outliers. In this example, the person who prepared the data labeled the outliers by adding movie titles to the graph.

The main benefit of this format is to immediately show a trend. At a glance, you can tell that most of the dots are in the same area of the graph and represent the average cost and profits.

Map: Most Popular Brand by State

This fun map superimposes brand logos over state lines to show the most popular brand in each state. The format is easy to read, and it turns numbers into a purely visual representation.

This data visualization example shows how you can simplify a dataset by replacing numbers with visual content. While maps can be challenging to interpret because of their size, this example simplifies the dataset by using a recognizable logo for each brand rather than showing text or numbers.

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Pie Chart: English Speakers Around the Globe

Where do English speakers live? This pie chart shows the top countries with the most English speakers.

Even though this pie chart doesn’t include percentages, it conveys the most important information since users can clearly see that the U.S. and UK have the largest slices on the chart. This format is helpful for comparing different categories or groups. 

Heat Map: Population Density in the U.S.

The user of color can help an audience develop a generalized view of a large and complex dataset. This heat map shows the population density in the U.S., and the audience will immediately notice the dark blue areas and understand where the most populated areas are.

There are many ways to use heat maps, such as adding colors over a timeline to track changes in time or using colors to show the areas of a webpage that get the most attention in eye-tracking studies.

Timeline: Indian History

This timeline is a helpful resource for understanding Indian history. The length of each bar represents a different civilization, and readers can get an idea of which civilizations were the most important. They can also tell which civilizations co-existed.

The bottom axis with regular time intervals is a helpful tool for comparing our modern society to ancient civilizations.