How to Create a Boxplot in Google Sheets

Last Updated on November 3, 2023 by Jake Sheridan

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a boxplot in Google Sheets.

How to Create a Boxplot in Google Sheets

A boxplot is a standardized method of depicting data distributions using a five-number summary (“minimum”, first quartile (Q1), median, third quartile (Q3), and “maximum”).

It can provide information about your outliers and their values. It can also determine whether your data is symmetrical, how tightly your data is packed, and whether or not your data is skewed.

The advantage of using a boxplot is that this graph shows how the values in the data are distributed.

Although boxplots appear basic when compared to a histogram or density plot, they have the advantage of taking up less space, which is beneficial for comparing distributions across multiple groups or datasets.

Despite the lack of a built-in boxplot capability in Google Sheets, we can construct a similar depiction by repurposing the candlestick chart.

When you’re ready, we’ll get started by utilizing real-world examples to show you how to make boxplots in Google Sheets.

Creating a Boxplot

Before we begin we will need a group of data to be used to create the boxplot.

Step 1 – Group your data

Make sure your group of data is displayed in a clean and tidy manner. This will help us to create the boxplot easily.

Step 2 – Select data & insert chart

Select the entire data cell, choose Insert, and select Chart.

Step 3 – Setup boxplot chart

By default, Google Sheet will use the selected group of data to generate a candlestick chart.

Step 4 – Customize your chart

Now, you can customize the boxplot to your preference. We will change the chart title to ‘Boxplot’ for a better representation of the boxplot chart.

Also, to emphasize the chart title, we will change the text color to black, bold it, and also align it to the center.

Step 5 – Parade your boxplot around & become the talk of the town

Once you are done editing and customizing the boxplot chart, it will look something like this.

Boxplot FAQs

How should I read a boxplot?

The bottom “whisker” represents the lowest value, while the top “whisker” represents the highest value. A short boxplot indicates that the data is more evenly distributed. A boxplot shows that, whereas two datasets may have the same median, their distributions can be drastically different.

Summary

That’s all there is to it. You are welcome to copy the example spreadsheet below to see how it is done. The most crucial lesson is to enjoy yourself while doing it.

Example Spreadsheet: Make a copy of the example spreadsheet

In this tutorial, I covered how to make categories in google sheets. Want more? Check out all the Google Sheets Tutorials.