CIMA BA1 Syllabus C. Informational Context Of Business - Bar Charts - Notes 4 / 7
Bar Charts
A bar chart is a widely used method of illustrating quantitative data.
Quantities are shown in the form of bars on a chart, the length of the bars being proportional to the quantities.
1. Simple bar charts
A simple bar chart consists of one or more bars, in which the length of each bar indicates the size of the corresponding information.
ABC Ltd: Sales Figures
| Year | Total Sales ($) |
| 2009 | 1,200,000 |
| 2010 | 1,500,000 |
| 2011 | 1,300,000 |
2. Component bar chart
A component bar chart is used when each total figure is made up of a number of different components and it is important that these components are shown as well as the total figure.
ABC Ltd: Sales Figures
| Product A ($) | Product B ($) | Product C ($) | Total($) | |
| 2009 | 300,000 | 400,000 | 500,000 | 1,200,000 |
| 2010 | 400,000 | 500,000 | 600,000 | 1,500,000 |
| 2011 | 300,000 | 600,000 | 400,000 | 1,300,000 |
3. Percentage component bar chart
A percentage component bar chart is a component bar chart which does not show total magnitudes.
The total length of each bar is the same — the size of the sections within the bar shows the relative sizes of the components
(ie the size of the section indicates the percentage of the total that each component accounts for).
ABC Ltd: Sales Figures
| Product A | Product B | Product C | Total | |
| 2009 | $300,000 25% | $400,000 33.33% | $500,000 41.67% | $1,200,000 |
| 2010 | $400,000 27% | $500,000 33% | $600,000 40% | $1,500,000 |
| 2011 | $300,000 23% | $600,000 46% | $400,000 31% | $1,300,000 |
