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Line Charts
6:16A line chart is made up of a series of data points connected by straight lines. Usually, they show trends of values over time.
Per Capita GDP of Grenada 1960 - 2020
In 1960, the per capita GDP in Grenada was just less than $2,000. Between the years 1980 and 2020, the per capita GDP tripled from around $5,000 to around $15,000.
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A line chart shows trends
in values over time.
0:00
A line chart is made up of a series of
data points connected by straight lines.
0:05
Typical examples of a line chart
are economic data, such as stock prices, and
0:11
health monitoring data, such as heart rate.
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In our Caribbean dataset, we have plenty
of data to make line charts from.
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I'll pick one country, Grenada.
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How did the GDP per capita
change in the last 60 years?
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First, I can click and drag all of
the years I need from 1960 to 2020.
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Then, to select the GDP per capita,
I will need to hold Command on Mac, or
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Ctrl on PC, while clicking and dragging.
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I inserted a chart from the menu
bar in the last video, but
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there's also a chart icon in the toolbar.
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You may have to expand the toolbar by
clicking on the three dots in the top
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right corner.
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So, I'll click on that to insert a chart,
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and the default chart it
gave me is a line chart.
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If your chart is different than mine,
go to your Chart Editor setup,
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click on the Chart Type dropdown, and
scroll down to select Line Chart.
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The first thing I like to do with my
charts is to make sure that they have
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a good descriptive title.
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So there's no title by
default on our chart.
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Let's add one.
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In the Chart Editor menu,
go to the Customize tab,
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and select Chart & axis titles.
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Make sure that the dropdown for
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title type selector says Chart title.
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For our Title text, let's name it
Per Capita GDP of Grenada 1960-2020.
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And let's center the title, too.
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In a line chart,
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values are represented by the points
where the lines cross the vertical axis.
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We can also customize the point size
to make it more obvious where exactly
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this is.
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Double click on the line
of the line chart, and
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this opens the Series option
in the chart editor. Here,
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notice how the default for
point size says None.
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Let's change that to 7 pixels,
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and while we're here, there
are options to change the line color,
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opacity, dash type, line thickness,
and even the shape of the points.
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I'll leave mine as it is, but feel free to
play around with your own customizations.
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Keep in mind that the goal is to have
a chart that is clearly readable.
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Now I can make an initial observation.
3:25
In 1960, the per capita GDP of
Grenada was less than $2,000.
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Then from 1980 to 2020,
the GDP had nearly tripled
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from around $5,000 to almost $15,000.
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I can provide more information so
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that a reader can understand how exactly
the value has changed over time.
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We can insert some labels
into our line chart.
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In the Chart Editor
under the Customize tab,
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I'll scroll down just a little bit
to find a series of checkboxes.
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The one that I'm looking for
is Data labels.
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Let's click that.
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And I have three labels, but I'm missing
one due to the default formatting.
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So let's reformat it.
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I'll change the position
from Auto to Below.
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Now, I have all four of my data points
clearly labeled on my line chart.
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That's a nice chart.
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Now let's add some alternative text.
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Open the menu dropdown on our chart
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and click Alt text.
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We can copy over our chart's
descriptive title for
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the Alt text title,
Per Capita GDP of Grenada 1960-2020.
4:50
For a description, let's use our add
a glance observation that we made earlier.
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In 1960, the per capita GDP in
Grenada was just less than $2,000.
5:03
Between the years 1980 and 2020,
5:09
the per capita GDP tripled from
around $5,000 to around $15,000.
5:12
You can copy and paste these
descriptions from my Teacher's Notes,
5:17
and I think this will pass the phone test
that is to say, if I read this to someone
5:21
over the phone, they would understand
the trend of the line chart.
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Now it's your turn to practice.
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Make one or several line charts for
another Caribbean country.
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Remember to include alternative text.
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Before we get started with our next plot,
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we need to move this line chart
out of the way to its own sheet.
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Click on the chart's Options menu and
move it to its own sheet.
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And let's rename the sheet
with a descriptive title, so
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we know where to find it.
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I'll call it Grenada GDP Line Chart.
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If you made several line charts,
go ahead and
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move each one of them to a new sheet and
rename the sheets, descriptively.
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