ggplot2::geom_histogram()
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Description

The geom_histogram() function is part of the {ggplot2} package, which is part of the {tidyverse}.

The geom_histogram() function is used within {ggplot2} plots to create a histogram, which shows the distribution of a numeric continuous variable. The x-axis shows values of the variable, and the y-axis shows binned counts of how often values in a given range occur. By default, geom_histogram() uses 30 bins.

Required aesthetics:

  • x: The numeric variable whose distribution the histogram visualizes.
    • Note that it is also allowed to make a horizontal histogram by providing a y aesthetic instead of an x (but never both)

Commonly used optional aesthetics:

  • color (colour): The outline color for the histogram bars
  • fill: The fill for the histogram bars
  • size: The width of the histogram bar outlines
  • bins: How many bins should be used (will be overridden by binwidth if both are provided)
  • binwidth: The width of each bin (will override bins if both are provided)

To use this function, you need to either first load the {ggplot2} library, or always use the function with ggplot2::geom_histogram() notation.

# Load the library
library(ggplot2)
# Or, load the full tidyverse:
library(tidyverse)

# Or, use :: notation
ggplot2::geom_histogram()

Examples

The examples below use the msleep dataset. Learn more about this dataset with get_help("msleep").

# Show the msleep dataset with head()
head(msleep)
## # A tibble: 6 × 11
##   name  genus vore  order conservation sleep_total sleep_rem sleep_cycle awake  brainwt  bodywt
##   <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>              <dbl>     <dbl>       <dbl> <dbl>    <dbl>   <dbl>
## 1 Owl … Aotus omni  Prim… <NA>                17         1.8      NA       7    0.0155    0.48 
## 2 Moun… Aplo… herbi Rode… nt                  14.4       2.4      NA       9.6 NA         1.35 
## 3 Grea… Blar… omni  Sori… lc                  14.9       2.3       0.133   9.1  0.00029   0.019
## 4 Cow   Bos   herbi Arti… domesticated         4         0.7       0.667  20    0.423   600    
## 5 Thre… Brad… herbi Pilo… <NA>                14.4       2.2       0.767   9.6 NA         3.85 
## 6 Nort… Call… carni Carn… vu                   8.7       1.4       0.383  15.3 NA        20.5


# By default, histograms have no color outline, are filled with dark gray, and use 30 bins
# If you do not specify binning, you will get a _normal_ message telling you 30 were chosen
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = awake) + 
  geom_histogram()
## `stat_bin()` using `bins = 30`. Pick better value with `binwidth`.


# Change the binning with `bins`
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = awake) + 
  geom_histogram(bins = 10)


# Change the binning with `binwidth`
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = awake) + 
  geom_histogram(binwidth = 0.5)


# Include custom fill and color
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = awake) + 
  geom_histogram(color = "black", fill = "purple")
## `stat_bin()` using `bins = 30`. Pick better value with `binwidth`.


# Include custom fill and color, with a larger outline size
# When you have many arguments, placing on separate lines makes code easier to read and work with
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = awake) + 
  geom_histogram(color = "black", 
                 fill = "purple", 
                 size = 2)
## `stat_bin()` using `bins = 30`. Pick better value with `binwidth`.


# A horizontal histogram using y instead of x aesthetic
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(y = awake) + 
  geom_histogram()
## `stat_bin()` using `bins = 30`. Pick better value with `binwidth`.