A short boxplot means the data are concentrated around a smaller range, while a longer boxplot and longer whiskers, indicating a broader range and longer tails.
The boxplot (or boxplots) are shown on an axis to show where the values lie. The ends of the whiskers represent the minimum and maximum values in the data set, although outliers often appear just off the edges.
The lines at the top and bottom are called whiskers and represent the tail of the data either side of the interquartile range. The mid-line of the box (which isn’t always central) represents the median the top of the box represents the upper quartile (Q3), and the bottom represents the lower quartile (Q1). How to interpret a boxplotĪ boxplot divides data into quartiles, with the box representing the interquartile range. While they can seem a bit unintuitive when you first look at them, boxplots actually tell you a great deal about the underlying data and are fairly easy to interpret when you know how. The boxplot, or box-and-whisker diagram, is one of the most useful ways to visualise statistical distributions in data.
