Density Plot
The Data Visualisation Catalogue

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Density Plot

density plot


As known as Kernel Density Plots, Density Trace Graph.

A Density Plot visualises the distribution of data over a continuous interval or time period. This chart is a variation of a Histogram that uses kernel smoothing to plot values, allowing for smoother distributions by smoothing out the noise. The peaks of a Density Plot help display where values are concentrated over the interval.

An advantage Density Plots have over Histograms is that they're better at determining the distribution shape because they're not affected by the number of bins used (each bar used in a typical histogram). A Histogram comprising of only 4 bins wouldn't produce a distinguishable enough shape of distribution as a 20-bin Histogram would. However, with Density plots this isn't an issue.




density plot

Similar Charts

Tools to Generate Visualisation

The R Graph Gallery (code) Cookbook for R (code)