Frequency Table

Advantages Disadvantages
Display of data not as visual and appealing as
Used primarily to organise data collected.
statistical graphs.
Harder to compare frequencies across
Easy to read the exact frequency for each
different categories than some statistical
category.
graphs.

Pictogram

Advantages Disadvantages
Difficult to draw pictures, unless using a
Colourful and appealing.
software.
Useful for sample size that are small and Drawing fraction of a picture may result in
consists only of integers. misinterpretation.
Actual frequency in each category may be
distorted and misinterpreted due to different
sizes of pictures in different categories.

Bar Graph

Advantages Disadvantages
Easier to draw than pictogram. Less appealing than a pictogram.
More abstract because frequency is
Can represent fraction if required.
represented by length of each bar.
If frequency does not start from zero, the
Not distorted by different sizes of pictures.
data may be distorted/misinterpreted.

Pie Chart

Advantages Disadvantages
More abstract than pictogram because
Easier to compare relative to size of each
frequency is represented by sector area (or
category with the whole.
angle)
Harder to construct than a bar chart.
Will look very cluttered if there are many
Useful if sample size is sufficiently small.
categories.
Size of sectors may be misinterpreted if not
drawn to scale.
Difficult to determine frequency of each
category unless stated inside each sector.
Line Graph

Advantages Disadvantages
Used to observe the rising and falling trend of
Must not read in between the plotted points.
a set of statistical data over a period of time.
Vertical axis must start from zero otherwise it
may be misinterpreted. However, if data with
small fluctuations, the vertical axis starting at
zero will prevent the observation of these
minor changes.

Dot Diagram

Advantages Disadvantages
Not suitable to display a large set of
Suitable to display a small set of numerical
numerical data (since each dot only
data.
represents one unit).
Not suitable to display a data set with many
different values or a large range.

Stem and Leaf Diagram

Advantages Disadvantages
Suitable to display a data set with many
Tedious to construct if there are too many
different values by grouping the values into
data values.
equal class intervals.
Cannot group into class intervals such as 141-
Individual data values are retained (as
150, 151-160, 161-170, etc. (because of the
leaves).
stem).
Can display two sets of data back-to-back for
easy computation.
Histogram

Advantages Disadvantages
Suitable to display a data set with many
More abstract because frequency is
different values by grouping the values into
represented by area of each column.
equal class intervals.
Suitable to display a data set when individual
Individual data values are lost.
data values are not important.
Easier to construct compared to stem and
leaf diagram, especially when there are many
data values.
Can group into class intervals such as 141-
150, 151-160, 161-170 etc.