How to Create a Bar Chart in Excel

How to create a bar chart in Excel

In this article, you will learn how to create bar charts in Excel. We will provide you with sample data and step-by-step instructions that you can use to follow along. So please go through each step carefully and learn how to create a bar chart in Excel.

What is a Bar Chart?

A bar chart is an Excel graphical representation of data in which bars represent categories or values, and the length of the bars shows how many times that value occurs within that category. We use bar charts to visually compare multiple categories of data at the same time.

Sample Data

In this example, you can use the sample data that we’ve provided below. Copy and paste the table below into Excel.

Country	Units Sold
Canada	247428
France	240931
Germany	201494
Mexico	203325
United States of America	232627

How to Create a Bar Chart in Excel

In this section, you will learn how to create bar graphs in Excel. There are three main steps to making a bar chart in Excel

Select the range of cells from the sample data that you want to display as bars in your chart.
Click on the “Insert Tab” and select “Recommended Charts”.
Select the “Bar Chart” option.

If you’ve followed the instructions correctly, then the bar chart will look like the one below.

Customizing Your Bar Chart

Now that you’ve created your bar chart, there are several ways that you can customize it. Select the chart that you want to customize. Next, click the “Chart Design” tab in Excel. Here are some of the ways you can customize your column chart.

Elements – You can add elements to the chart including axes, titles, labels, gridlines, legends, or trendlines.
Quick Layout – A Quick Layout is a template that you can apply to your bar chart. You can use this customization option when you need to create a quick visual representation of data.
Change Colors – The change color option for bar charts in Excel is for updating the color palette of the bars in the chart.
Chart Style – The change style option for bar charts in Excel allows you to change the appearance of bars in the chart. You can choose from several different styles, which will update the look and feel of the bar chart.
Data Selection – Finally, there is an option to update your data selection. In this customization option, you can change the rows or columns, reselect the data, or even change the chart type.

Conclusion

In this article, you learned how to create bar graphs in Excel. Bar graphs are visual representations of data that shows the frequency of categories. They are useful for comparing multiple categories of data at the same time.

There are three main steps to making a bar chart in Excel: selecting a range of cells that you want to display as bars in your chart, selecting the bar chart type, and formatting the bars in your chart to customize the appearance and make them easier to read.