X-Y charts are well suited to showing the relationships between data sets, for example between population growth rate and income per head.
The following spreadsheet provides data for an extended exercise in Geography on development indicators. This can be found at K:\IT\FourthForm\Economic Development Data.
In the course of the exercise you are required to produce one or more X-Y (Scatter) charts that show the possible connection between indicators such as GDP Per Capita (Gross Domestic Product per person, similar to income per head) and birth rate, death rate, literacy rates, and so on.
Below is a copy of an X-Y scatter chart based on GDP Per Capita and Energy Consumption per person. The Legend has been removed as it serves no purpose. The X and Y axis labels have been formatted to 8 points so they will fit into the spaces available (the X axis was no problem but the Y axis was).
Data:
To create an X-Y chart select only the numeric data; the labels (country names) in column A will not be used when Excel draws the chart.
X-Y charts are about patterns rather than relating data to labels, though you could add some names manually later if you need to. Click on the Chart Wizard as usual, choose X-Y scatter as the type of chart and proceed to Step 3 of the Wizard as usual.
In a second version of this chart a line of best fit has been added (linear):
A line of best fit is added by right-clicking on any blue data point and selecting 'Add Trendline'. The Trendline dialogue box provides six types of line (stick to linear for now) and some other options such as adding the equation of the line to the chart (choose this if you think it helps you understand the data).
In this case there are a number of points (known as residuals) that are some distance from the line of best fit. One of the questions in the exercise asks you to identify the countries (you have to work backwards from the point to the axes and the data) and to suggest possible reasons for this.
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