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Column and
bar charts are similar to each other.

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They both are often used to make
visualizations that compare data across

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different categories.

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Rectangles represent values.

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In a column chart,
the rectangles are vertical.

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Since they go up and down, a column chart
can be used to describe negative numbers.

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In a bar chart, the rectangles
go left to right horizontally.

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Bar charts have more room to
label different categories.

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Let's make some column and bar charts.

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In the Central America dataset,
there are four columns, for

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country, population,
GDP per capita, and GDP total.

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GDP stands for gross domestic product,

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it represents the economic output for
a country in a given year.

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GDP per capita is a rough
indicator of living standards.

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It represents the amount of money each
person in the country would have if

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the nation's wealth were
equally distributed.

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What are the differences between
these countries' populations?

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We can quickly visualize an answer to
this question with a column chart.

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I'll need data from column A for
country and column B for population.

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I can click the header for
column A to select all of the countries.

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Then I can choose a different column
by clicking while holding down

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the Ctrl key for PC, or Cmd key for Mac.

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Next, in the menu bar,
I'll go to Insert and click on Chart,

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and right away, I get a column chart.

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Google Sheets will provide you with
sensible defaults based on the data that

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you select to make a chart from,

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but in case your chart is
different than mine right now,

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you can select a different chart
type from the Chart editor.

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Click on the Chart type dropdown and
scroll down to select Column chart.

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Now we are ready to customize the chart
to create a more impactful visualization.

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For instance, it's hard to tell
which country between Nicaragua and

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El Salvador has a higher population.

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We can sort the data series in
ascending order, smallest to largest,

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to clean up our column chart.

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First, I'll move my chart out of
the way by clicking and dragging it.

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Then I'll deselect columns A and
B by clicking away from those columns.

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Now I can right click on column B,
and select Sort sheet from A to Z,

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and it will rearrange the data series
based on ascending population,

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from smallest to largest.

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And now I can tell from the chart that
Nicaragua has a higher population than

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El Salvador.

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There are a few more
customizations we can make.

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In our dataset,
there are only seven countries,

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but you can imagine that if we had twice
as many countries, the labels along the x

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axis on the bottom would be more
hard to read due to crowding.

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I'll click on the chart and
then on the options menu,

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that's the three vertical
dots in the top right corner.

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Now edit the chart.

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For larger datasets,
you would prefer to use a bar chart.

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A bar chart has more room for
labels that are easier to read.

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So let's switch over to that.

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In the Chart editor Setup tab,

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I can open the dropdown menu to
select a different chart type,

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and you see that Google Sheets makes
suggestions with both column and

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bar charts.

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These are the sensible defaults
that I was referring to earlier.

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You might see different suggestions
than I do right now, and that's okay.

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All of the different chart types
can be found here in this menu.

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Let's scroll down and
select the bar chart.

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Now let's go back to column B.

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I'll close my chart editor and
click and drag my chart so

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that I can see the data in column B.

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Let's sort in descending order.

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I'll right click and
sort the sheet from Z to A.

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This places the visual emphasis on the
most significant values near the top of

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the bar chart for ease of reading.

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I can immediately notice that Guatemala
has nearly twice the population of

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the next largest country, Honduras,

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and Belize is the least populated
Central American country.

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This chart could be better with
a title that is more informative and

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better formatted.

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I'll double click on the chart
title to open the Chart editor, and

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it opens the Customize tab for
the chart title.

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First, I'll edit the title to
add the name of the dataset,

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Population vs
Country - Central America 2020.

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Then in the Title format section,

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I can click the dropdown for
alignment to center the text.

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If you want to change
the color of the rectangles,

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go to the Series section
of the Customize tab.

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From here,
change the Fill color from Auto to one

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that has a high contrast
with the background.

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That's a nice chart!

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So our chart is nice and easy to read,

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but there's one more thing we need to do
to make sure that everyone can read it,

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including people with disabilities.

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The charts that we're creating
are actually saved as images.

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Screen reader users who access our
sheet will just hear chart by default,

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and that's not really helpful to learn
about what's going on with our data.

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So we're going to include some
alternative text to help them out.

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On our chart's option menu,
the three vertical dots,

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open the dropdown and select Alt text.

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In the pop-up window, add a title.

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Since we have a descriptive title already,
let's copy that here.

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Population Vs Country,

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Central America, 2020.

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For the description,
we'll provide a summary of the trend.

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Imagine trying to tell somebody
about this chart over the phone.

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What are one or two takeaways that can
help them quickly understand some key

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insights into the data?

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What are the areas of strong visual
emphasis that can be shared as text?

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Earlier I said that Guatemala has
nearly twice the population of

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the next largest country, Honduras,

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and Belize is the least populated
Central American country.

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So let's use that information
in our alt text description.

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I've included some resources in my
Teacher's Notes about how to write good

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alternative text and additional
accessibility tips for Google Sheets.

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Make sure to check them out,
they're very good pointers.

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You can also copy and paste my titles and
descriptions from the Teacher's Notes.

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Now you try, make a column or bar chart
using the Central America dataset.

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There are two more columns, for
GDP per capita and GDP total.

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Try making a bar chart for one and
a column chart for the other.

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Which format is easier to read for
which data?

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Remember to include a descriptive
title that can be reused in

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the alternative text.

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After you are done practicing,
check out my Teacher's Notes for

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examples of the charts that I made for
this dataset.

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Then in our next video,
we will learn about line charts.

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I'll catch you there.