What is a pictograph?

What is a pictograph? A graph is a visual way to display information. A pictograph is a special type of graph that uses pictures or symbols to display information. The pictures or symbols in a pictograph usually represent more than one item. The following is an example of a pictograph:

Pictograph

The pictograph above has a title and a scale. 

  • The title of this pictograph is "Number of circles drawn"
  • The scale that the pictograph is using is this: One circle represents 5 circles.

Let us say that the circles were drawn by David, Peter, John, Brown, and Jennifer.

Having said that we can make the following observations:

  • David drew 15 circles since we have 3 circles and each circle represents 5 circles (5 times 3 = 15).
  • John drew 7.5 circles. How did we get 7.5?
  • Jennifer drew 20 circles since we have 4 circles and each circle represents 5 circles (5 times 4 = 20).

How did we get 7.5 for John? Note that if a circle represents 5 circles, half a circle will represent 5/2 circles or 2.5 circles. Add 5 circles to 2.5 circles to get 7.5 circles.

An exercise that will show you how to construct a pictograph

Construct a pictograph with the following table

Number of taxi drivers in 5 cities

You can follow this guideline in order to construct the pictograph.

  • For this pictograph, we can draw faces to represent the drivers.
  • We can still use the same title "Number of taxi drivers in five cities"
  • Since we are really dealing with very big numbers here, we can just use 1 face to represent 5 taxi drivers. 

Suppose for instance, you were dealing with very big numbers such as hundreds of drivers in a city, you could have used 1 face to represent 100 drivers. 

Here is the pictograph.

Pictograph for the number of drivers in 5 cities.

Recent Articles

  1. Calculate the Conditional Probability using a Contingency Table

    Mar 29, 23 10:19 AM

    Contingency table
    Learn to calculate the conditional probability using a contingency table. This contingency table can help you understand quickly and painlessly.

    Read More

  2. Rational Numbers - Definition and Examples

    Mar 15, 23 07:45 AM

    Rational numbers
    To learn about rational numbers, write their decimal expansion, and recognize rational numbers that are repeating decimals and terminating decimals.

    Read More

Tough algebra word problems

100 Tough Algebra Word Problems.

If you can solve these problems with no help, you must be a genius!

Math quizzes

 Recommended

Math vocabulary quizzes