How To Create Bar Charts From Likert Scale Results

Presenting survey results accurately and clearly is just as important as how you conduct the survey. Presented well, the results of a survey are informative and enlightening. But poor presentation can confound the study and threaten your credibility as a researcher. Bar charts are easy-to-interpret representations of survey data. A bar chart can compare frequency of responses to Likert items, which measure respondents' levels of agreement or disagreement with an issue. A typical Likert scale includes the responses, "strongly agree," "agree," "neither agree nor disagree," "disagree" and "strongly disagree."

Step 1

Gather your data. Bar charts represent discrete values, not percentages. Use the raw sums of responses to each item for your bar chart.

Step 2

Create a bar chart for each individual item. Each survey question should be represented in its own chart. One bar corresponds to each possible response: "strongly agree," "agree," "neither agree nor disagree," "disagree" and "strongly disagree.

Step 3

Make a frequency scale on one axis. Always include zero and label periodic intervals.

Step 4

List the possible responses on the other axis. This is where the bars will begin. Bar charts can be situated horizontally or vertically, so the axes are interchangeable.

Step 5

Create a bar for each response that represents the frequency of that response.

Step 6

Label each bar chart with the substance of the Likert item measured. The exact wording of the question is preferable.

Step 7

Repeat this process for each Likert item. If possible, maintain the same frequency scale for each chart so that, when viewed side-by-side, the charts measure responses equally.