Pictographs
Pictographs
A pictograph (or pictogram) is a way of displaying data using pictures. We need to be able to draw them and interpret them. Make sure you are happy with the following topics before continuing.
Constructing a Pictograph
Pictographs are a method of displaying data. They include a key giving information on what each individual picture is worth.
Example: Faye records the number of people at football training each week for weeks in the table below.
Use this information to draw a pictograph of Faye’s data, including a key.
We’re going to use footballs as the picture as it’s related to the question.
Here, we’re going to choose to have football representing people.
Since whole balls are worth people, half a football represents people and a quarter of a football represents people.
For each week we match the number of people with the required number of balls, e.g. for Week , we have:
so we will draw footballs and quarters of a football.
The completed pictograph is:
Interpreting Pictographs
To interpret pictographs, we look at the table provided, along with the key which tells us what each individual picture is worth. We can then answer questions related to the pictograph.
Example: Riley recorded how much TV she watched from Monday to Friday one week and displayed her results using a pictograph.
How long did Riley spend watching TV on Thursday? Give your answer in hours and minutes.
Here, the key tells us that one picture of a TV is worth minutes.
So, looking at Thursday, we can see that there are whole TVs and half TV. Therefore, the total time spent watching TV on Thursday is
minutes
hour minutes
So, the total time is hour and minutes.
Pictographs Example Questions
We are going to use an orange as the image for this picture (although you could use any symbol you like), so we now have to decide what our key should be. In this case, we are going to choose to make each image of an orange represent oranges eaten. It is very important in your pictogram that you have a key that states that one orange image equals two oranges eaten.
(You could chose to make each image equal orange, which is completely acceptable. However, it would be better to have each image represent multiple oranges in order make it easier for the person viewing the data to work out each category total.)
So, in week there were oranges eaten by Jenna’s family. , so we will have to draw pictures for week .
In week there were oranges eaten. , which means we will have to draw whole oranges and one half-orange.
Continuing this process for the other two weeks, you should get a pictograph that looks like the below:
Question 2: Alexis tracked the distance she walked for days. Her results are displayed in the pictograph below:
a) Work out the distance she walked on Tuesday.
b) Alexis aimed to walk at least km per day. On how many days did she reach this goal?
[3 marks]
a) On Tuesday there are whole pictures of shoes, and one quarter of a picture.
If one picture = km
then
of a picture =
So, the distance walked on Tuesday is
b) km is her aim. Since one picture is worth km, then we need to find the days where there are whole sets of trainers shown.
Therefore, we can see that there are days – Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday – where she achieved her goal.
Question 3: The pictogram below shows how much money was raised for charity by members of a form group:

In the pictogram, each circle represents .
a) How many children raised more than ?
b) What fraction of the children raised less than ?
c) To the nearest pound, what was the mean amount of money raised?
[4 marks]
a) We have been told that each circle represents raised. Therefore every semi-circle represents raised and every quarter-circle represents raised.
For this question, we also need to know some common decimal facts, namely that , and .
All we need to do is look at each member of the form group individually to work out how much they have raised each:
Sally: circles =
Ahmed: circles =
Delaine: circles =
Priti: circles =
Annabelle: circles =
Derek: circles =
We can therefore see that Sally, Ahmed, Priti, Annabelle and Derek raised more than , so people raised more than .
b) There were just student who raised less than and that was Delaine (do not count Sally or Ahmed since is not less than ).
Therefore, of the students, of them raised less than , so we can write this as the following fraction:
This fraction is already in its simplest form.
c) We have already worked out how much money each individual student raised. If we add up these amounts up, we will have a combined total of money raised:
Since there are students, the mean amount raised will be the combined total divided by :
Question 4: The pictogram shows some information about the number of types of butterflies in a butterfly farm:

In total, there are Purple Emperors.
There are times as many Red Admirals as there are Purple Emperors.
The number of Silver-studded Blue butterflies is the number of Red Admirals.
There are more Black Hairstreaks than there are Silver-studded Blues.
The number of Wood Whites is of the number of Black Hairstreaks.
Complete the pictograph above.
[5 marks]
The first thing we need to do in this question is to work out how many butterflies are represented by each butterfly image in the pictograph. We are told that there are Purple Emperors, and this is shown with butterflies.
Therefore, each butterfly image in the pictograph must represent:
We are told that there are times as many Red Admirals as there are Purple Emperors. If there are Purple Emperors, then there must be
We are told that the number of Silver-studded Blue butterflies is the number of Red Admirals. If there are Red Admirals, then the number of Silver-studded Blues can be calculated as follows:
We are told that there are more Black Hairstreaks than there are Silver-studded Blue butterflies. This means that the number of Black Hairstreaks is double the number of Silver-studded Blues. Since there are Silver-studded Blues, then there must be
Finally, we are told that the number of Wood Whites is of the number of Black Hairstreaks. Since there are Black Hairstreaks, then the number of Wood Whites can be calculated as follows:
Since we know know exactly how many butterflies there are of each species, we now need to work out how many butterfly images to draw to represent each species total.
One butterfly image represents butterflies, so we can calculate the number of butterfly images we need to draw for each species as follows:
Red Admiral:
Silver-studded Blue:
Black Hairstreak:
Wood White:
Therefore, your final pictograph should look like the below:

Question 5: Gary has been tracking the amount of guitar practice he does over a -week period.
The ratio of guitar practice he does for week to week is .
The ratio of guitar practice he does for week to week is .
The ratio of guitar practice he does for week to week is .
Gary does hours of guitar practice in week .
Complete the below pictogram to represent the above information.

[5 marks]
The key piece of information that we have is that in week , Gary does hours of guitar practice.
We can use this key piece of information to help us solve the statement: the ratio of guitar practice he does for week to week is . (This is the only statement we can try to work out at the moment, since the only known value we have is the week value.)
If the ratio of guitar practice is for week to week , then we will need to find an equivalent ratio for where represents the week value. Since the week figure is times greater than the figure given in the ratio , then we will have an equivalent ratio if we also multiply the week ratio figure by .
Since , Gary therefore does hours of guitar practice in week .
Since we now know the week value, we can work out the week value.
If the ratio of guitar practice is for week to week , then we will need to find an equivalent ratio for where is the week value. Since the week figure is times greater than the figure given in the ratio, then we will have an equivalent ratio if we also multiply the week ratio figure by .
Since , Gary therefore does hours of guitar practice in week .
Since we now know the week value, we can work out the week value.
If the ratio of guitar practice is for week to week , then we will need to find an equivalent ratio for where is the week value. Since the week figure is times greater than the figure given in the ratio , then we will have an equivalent ratio if we also multiply the week ratio figure by .
Since , Gary therefore does hours of guitar practice in week .
Now that we have that total number of hours for weeks to ( hours, hours, hours and hours), we need to work out how to show this on the pictogram. Since all of the above numbers are divisible by , then it would be logical make your pictogram image represent hours of practice.
For week , you would need
For week , you would need
For week , you would need
For week , you would need
Your final pictogram should be similar to the below:

(The image doesn’t have to be a guitar; it can be anything of your choice! Keep it simple and use a circle if you like!)
Specification Points Covered
2. interpret and construct tables, charts and diagrams, including frequency tables, bar charts, pie charts and pictograms for categorical data, vertical line charts for ungrouped discrete numerical data, tables and line graphs for time series data and know their appropriate use


