Box plot

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Figure 1. Box plot of data from the Michelson experiment

In descriptive statistics, a box plot or boxplot is a method for demonstrating graphically the locality,
spread and skewness groups of numerical data through their quartiles.[1] In addition to the box on a box
plot, there can be lines (which are called whiskers) extending from the box indicating variability outside
the upper and lower quartiles, thus, the plot is also called the box-and-whisker plot and the box-and-
whisker diagram. Outliers that differ significantly from the rest of the dataset[2] may be plotted as
individual points beyond the whiskers on the box-plot. Box plots are non-parametric: they display
variation in samples of a statistical population without making any assumptions of the underlying
statistical distribution[3] (though Tukey's boxplot assumes symmetry for the whiskers and normality for
their length). The spacings in each subsection of the box-plot indicate the degree of dispersion (spread)
and skewness of the data, which are usually described using the five-number summary. In addition, the
box-plot allows one to visually estimate various L-estimators, notably the interquartile range, midhinge,
range, mid-range, and trimean. Box plots can be drawn either horizontally or vertically.

History

The range-bar method was first introduced by Mary Eleanor Spear in her book "Charting Statistics" in
1952[4] and again in her book "Practical Charting Techniques" in 1969.[5] The box-and-whisker plot was
first introduced in 1970 by John Tukey, who later published on the subject in his book "Exploratory Data
Analysis" in 1977.[6]

Elements
 Figure 2. Box-plot with whiskers from minimum to maximum

Figure 3. Same box-plot with whiskers drawn within the 1.5 IQR
value

A boxplot is a standardized way of displaying the dataset based on the five-number summary: the
minimum, the maximum, the sample median, and the first and third quartiles.

 Minimum (Q0 or 0th percentile): the lowest data point in the data set excluding any outliers

 Maximum (Q4 or 100th percentile): the highest data point in the data set excluding any outliers

 Median (Q2 or 50th percentile): the middle value in the data set

 First quartile (Q1 or 25th percentile): also known as the lower quartile qn(0.25), it is the median
of the lower half of the dataset.

 Third quartile (Q3 or 75th percentile): also known as the upper quartile qn(0.75), it is the median
of the upper half of the dataset.[7]

In addition to the minimum and maximum values used to construct a box-plot, another important
element that can also be employed to obtain a box-plot is the interquartile range (IQR), as denoted
below:

 Interquartile range (IQR) : the distance between the upper and lower quartiles

A box-plot usually includes two parts, a box and a set of whiskers as shown in Figure 2.

Box

The box is drawn from Q1 to Q3 with a horizontal line drawn inside it to denote the median. Some box
plots include an additional character to represent the mean of the data.[8][9]

Whiskers
The whiskers must end at an observed data point, but can be defined in various ways. In the most
straightforward method, the boundary of the lower whisker is the minimum value of the data set, and
the boundary of the upper whisker is the maximum value of the data set. Because of this variability, it is
appropriate to describe the convention that is being used for the whiskers and outliers in the caption of
the box-plot.

Another popular choice for the boundaries of the whiskers is based on the 1.5 IQR value. From above the
upper quartile (Q3), a distance of 1.5 times the IQR is measured out and a whisker is drawn up to the
largest observed data point from the dataset that falls within this distance. Similarly, a distance of 1.5
times the IQR is measured out below the lower quartile (Q1) and a whisker is drawn down to the lowest
observed data point from the dataset that falls within this distance. Because the whiskers must end at an
observed data point, the whisker lengths can look unequal, even though 1.5 IQR is the same for both
sides. All other observed data points outside the boundary of the whiskers are plotted as outliers.[10] The
outliers can be plotted on the box-plot as a dot, a small circle, a star, etc. (see example below).

There are other representations in which the whiskers can stand for several other things, such as:

 One standard deviation above and below the mean of the data set

 The 9th percentile and the 91st percentile of the data set

 The 2nd percentile and the 98th percentile of the data set

Rarely, box-plot can be plotted without the whiskers. This can be appropriate for sensitive information to
avoid whiskers (and outliers) disclosing actual values observed.[11]

The unusual percentiles 2%, 9%, 91%, 98% are sometimes used for whisker cross-hatches and whisker
ends to depict the seven-number summary. If the data are normally distributed, the locations of the
seven marks on the box plot will be equally spaced. On some box plots, a cross-hatch is placed before
the end of each whisker.

Variations
 Figure 4. Four box plots, with and without notches
and variable width

Since the mathematician John W. Tukey first popularized this type of visual data display in 1969, several
variations on the classical box plot have been developed, and the two most commonly found variations
are the variable width box plots and the notched box plots shown in Figure 4.

Variable width box plots illustrate the size of each group whose data is being plotted by making the
width of the box proportional to the size of the group. A popular convention is to make the box width
proportional to the square root of the size of the group.[12]

Notched box plots apply a "notch" or narrowing of the box around the median. Notches are useful in
offering a rough guide of the significance of the difference of medians; if the notches of two boxes do
not overlap, this will provide evidence of a statistically significant difference between the medians. [12] The
height of the notches is proportional to the interquartile range (IQR) of the sample and is inversely
proportional to the square root of the size of the sample. However, there is an uncertainty about the
most appropriate multiplier (as this may vary depending on the similarity of the variances of the
samples).[12] The width of the notch is arbitrarily chosen to be visually pleasing, and should be consistent
amongst all box plots being displayed on the same page.

One convention for obtaining the boundaries of these notches is to use a distance of around the median.
[13]

Adjusted box plots are intended to describe skew distributions, and they rely on the medcouple statistic
of skewness.[14] For a medcouple value of MC, the lengths of the upper and lower whiskers on the box-
plot are respectively defined to be:

For a symmetrical data distribution, the medcouple will be zero, and this reduces the adjusted box-plot
to the Tukey's box-plot with equal whisker lengths of for both whiskers.

Other kinds of box plots, such as the violin plots and the bean plots can show the difference between
single-modal and multimodal distributions, which cannot be observed from the original classical box-
plot.[6]
Examples

Example without outliers

Figure 5. The generated boxplot figure of the example on the left

with no outliers

A series of hourly temperatures were measured throughout the day in degrees Fahrenheit. The recorded
values are listed in order as follows (°F): 57, 57, 57, 58, 63, 66, 66, 67, 67, 68, 69, 70, 70, 70, 70, 72, 73,
75, 75, 76, 76, 78, 79, 81.

A box plot of the data set can be generated by first calculating five relevant values of this data set:
minimum, maximum, median (Q2), first quartile (Q1), and third quartile (Q3).

The minimum is the smallest number of the data set. In this case, the minimum recorded day
temperature is 57°F.

The maximum is the largest number of the data set. In this case, the maximum recorded day
temperature is 81°F.

The median is the "middle" number of the ordered data set. This means that exactly 50% of the
elements are below the median and 50% of the elements are greater than the median. The median of
this ordered data set is 70°F.

The first quartile value (Q1 or 25th percentile) is the number that marks one quarter of the ordered data
set. In other words, there are exactly 25% of the elements that are less than the first quartile and exactly
75% of the elements that are greater than it. The first quartile value can be easily determined by finding
the "middle" number between the minimum and the median. For the hourly temperatures, the "middle"
number found between 57°F and 70°F is 66°F.

The third quartile value (Q3 or 75th percentile) is the number that marks three quarters of the ordered
data set. In other words, there are exactly 75% of the elements that are less than the third quartile and
25% of the elements that are greater than it. The third quartile value can be easily obtained by finding
the "middle" number between the median and the maximum. For the hourly temperatures, the
"middle" number between 70°F and 81°F is 75°F.

The interquartile range, or IQR, can be calculated by subtracting the first quartile value (Q1) from the
third quartile value (Q3):

Hence,

1.5 IQR above the third quartile is:

1.5 IQR below the first quartile is:

The upper whisker boundary of the box-plot is the largest data value that is within 1.5 IQR above the
third quartile. Here, 1.5 IQR above the third quartile is 88.5°F and the maximum is 81°F. Therefore, the
upper whisker is drawn at the value of the maximum, which is 81°F.

Similarly, the lower whisker boundary of the box plot is the smallest data value that is within 1.5 IQR
below the first quartile. Here, 1.5 IQR below the first quartile is 52.5°F and the minimum is 57°F.
Therefore, the lower whisker is drawn at the value of the minimum, which is 57°F.

Example with outliers

Figure 6. The generated boxplot of the example on the left with

outliers

Above is an example without outliers. Here is a followup example for generating box-plot with outliers:

The ordered set for the recorded temperatures is (°F): 52, 57, 57, 58, 63, 66, 66, 67, 67, 68, 69, 70, 70,
70, 70, 72, 73, 75, 75, 76, 76, 78, 79, 89.

In this example, only the first and the last number are changed. The median, third quartile, and first
quartile remain the same.

In this case, the maximum value in this data set is 89°F, and 1.5 IQR above the third quartile is 88.5°F. The
maximum is greater than 1.5 IQR plus the third quartile, so the maximum is an outlier. Therefore, the
upper whisker is drawn at the greatest value smaller than 1.5 IQR above the third quartile, which is 79°F.

Similarly, the minimum value in this data set is 52°F, and 1.5 IQR below the first quartile is 52.5°F. The
minimum is smaller than 1.5 IQR minus the first quartile, so the minimum is also an outlier. Therefore,
the lower whisker is drawn at the smallest value greater than 1.5 IQR below the first quartile, which is
57°F.

In the case of large datasets

An additional example for obtaining box-plot from a data set containing a large number of data points is:

General equation to compute empirical quantiles

Here stands for the general ordering of the data points (i.e. if , then )

Using the above example that has 24 data points (n = 24), one can calculate the median, first and third
quartile either mathematically or visually.
Median :

First quartile :

Third quartile :

Visualization

Figure 7. Box-plot and a probability density function (pdf) of

2
a Normal N(0,1σ ) Population

Although box plots may seem more primitive than histograms or kernel density estimates, they do have
a number of advantages. First, the box plot enables statisticians to do a quick graphical examination on
one or more data sets. Box-plots also take up less space and are therefore particularly useful for
comparing distributions between several groups or sets of data in parallel (see Figure 1 for an example).
Lastly, the overall structure of histograms and kernel density estimate can be strongly influenced by the
choice of number and width of bins techniques and the choice of bandwidth, respectively.

Although looking at a statistical distribution is more common than looking at a box plot, it can be useful
to compare the box plot against the probability density function (theoretical histogram) for a normal
N(0,σ2) distribution and observe their characteristics directly (as shown in Figure 7).

Figure 8. Box-plots displaying the skewness of the data set

See also
  Bagplot

 Contour boxplot

 Candlestick chart

 Data and information visualization

 Exploratory data analysis

 Fan chart

 Five-number summary

 Functional boxplot

 Seven-number summary

 Sina plot

 Violin plot

References

1.

 C., Dutoit, S. H. (2012). Graphical exploratory data analysis. Springer. ISBN 978-1-4612-9371-2.
OCLC 1019645745.

  Grubbs, Frank E. (February 1969). "Procedures for Detecting Outlying Observations in Samples".
Technometrics. 11 (1): 1–21. doi:10.1080/00401706.1969.10490657. ISSN 0040-1706.

  Richard., Boddy (2009). Statistical Methods in Practice : for Scientists and Technologists. John Wiley
& Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-74664-6. OCLC 940679163.

  Spear, Mary Eleanor (2024). Charting Statistics. McGraw Hill. p. 166.

  Spear, Mary Eleanor. (1969). Practical charting techniques. New York: McGraw-Hill.
ISBN 0070600104. OCLC 924909765.

  Wickham, Hadley; Stryjewski, Lisa. "40 years of boxplots" (PDF). Retrieved December 24, 2020.

  Holmes, Alexander; Illowsky, Barbara; Dean, Susan (31 March 2015). "Introductory Business
Statistics". OpenStax. Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2020.

  Frigge, Michael; Hoaglin, David C.; Iglewicz, Boris (February 1989). "Some Implementations of the
Boxplot". The American Statistician. 43 (1): 50–54. doi:10.2307/2685173. JSTOR 2685173.

  Marmolejo-Ramos, F.; Tian, S. (2010). "The shifting boxplot. A boxplot based on essential summary
statistics around the mean". International Journal of Psychological Research. 3 (1): 37–46.
doi:10.21500/20112084.823. hdl:10819/6492.

  Dekking, F.M. (2005). A Modern Introduction to Probability and Statistics. Springer. pp. 234–238.
ISBN 1-85233-896-2.
  Derrick, Ben; Green, Elizabeth; Ritchie, Felix; White, Paul (September 2022). "The Risk of Disclosure
When Reporting Commonly Used Univariate Statistics". Privacy in Statistical Databases. Lecture Notes in
Computer Science. Vol. 13463. pp. 119–129. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-13945-1_9. ISBN 978-3-031-13944-
4.

  McGill, Robert; Tukey, John W.; Larsen, Wayne A. (February 1978). "Variations of Box Plots". The
American Statistician. 32 (1): 12–16. doi:10.2307/2683468. JSTOR 2683468.

  "R: Box Plot Statistics". R manual. Retrieved 26 June 2011.

14.  Hubert, M.; Vandervieren, E. (2008). "An adjusted boxplot for skewed distribution".
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis. 52 (12): 5186–5201. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.90.9812.
doi:10.1016/j.csda.2007.11.008.

Further reading

 Tukey, John W. (1977). Exploratory Data Analysis. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 9780201076165.

 Benjamini, Y. (1988). "Opening the Box of a Boxplot". The American Statistician. 42 (4): 257–262.
doi:10.2307/2685133. JSTOR 2685133.

 Rousseeuw, P. J.; Ruts, I.; Tukey, J. W. (1999). "The Bagplot: A Bivariate Boxplot". The American
Statistician. 53 (4): 382–387. doi:10.2307/2686061. JSTOR 2686061.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Box plots.

 Beeswarm Boxplot - superimposing a frequency-jittered stripchart on top of a box plot

Categories:

 Statistical charts and diagrams

 Statistical outliers