A pictograph (or picture graph) displays data using pictures or symbols, where each picture represents a specific quantity. For example, if 🍎 = 5 apples, then 🍎🍎🍎 means 15 apples. A key (legend) always tells you what each symbol represents.
Instead of boring bars, pictographs use fun pictures to show data. If each smiley face means 2 students, and you see 5 smiley faces, that's 10 students! It makes data feel more real.
Showing a random 20 of 50 problems.
Example 1
easy
A pictograph must always include a key. If a graph has 5 symbols but no key, can you find the exact count? Answer 1 for yes, 0 for no.
Example 2
medium
A pictograph row has 8 symbols, each representing 25 students. How many students total?
Example 3
hard
A pictograph uses 1 symbol = 4. Category A shows 7 symbols, B shows 4 symbols, C shows 6.5 symbols. What is the mean count per category?
Example 4
challenge
A pictograph uses 1 symbol = k for an unknown k. Three rows show 5, 8, and 11 symbols with totals 30, 48, and 66 respectively. Find k.
Example 5
medium
With 1 symbol = 7, category A shows 6 symbols and B shows 4 symbols. How many items combined?Key: 1 symbol = 7. A has 6 symbols (42 items), B has 4 symbols (28 items). How many items combined?
Example 6
challenge
A pictograph uses 1 symbol = 8. Category A has 3.5 symbols and category B has 2.5 symbols. How many more items are in A than B?Key: 1 symbol = 8. A has 3.5 symbols (28 items), B has 2.5 symbols (20 items). How many more in A?
Example 7
easy
A pictograph key says 1 symbol = 2 apples. A row has 4 symbols. How many apples?
Example 8
challenge
A pictograph compares two months. May has 6 symbols, June has 9 symbols. June's total is 24 more than May's. What is the key value (items per symbol)?
Example 9
medium
A pictograph shows two categories. Row A: 3 symbols = 24 items. What is the key value (items per symbol)?
Example 10
medium
With 1 symbol = 6, category A shows 5 symbols and category B shows 8 symbols. How many items combined?Key: 1 symbol = 6. Category A has 5 symbols (30 items), B has 8 symbols (48 items). How many combined?
Example 11
easy
Two rows show 5 and 3 symbols with 1 symbol = 2. How many more items in the first row?Key: 1 symbol = 2. Row 1 has 5 symbols (10 items), Row 2 has 3 symbols (6 items). How many more in Row 1?
Example 12
medium
A pictograph uses a star symbol where each star represents 5 stickers. If one row shows 3 full stars and a half star, how many stickers does that represent? Explain what a half symbol means.
Example 13
hard
A pictograph designer wants the smallest key value k that lets categories with counts 16, 24, and 40 each use a whole number of symbols. What is k?
Example 14
easy
With 1 symbol = 4, how many symbols represent 12 items?
Example 15
easy
A pictograph row has 3 symbols, each = 7. What does the row total?
Example 16
hard
A pictograph uses 1 symbol = 6 books. To minimize the number of total symbols across three rows of 30, 42, and 54 books, the key is set so each row uses whole symbols. What is the largest such key that works?
Example 17
easy
A pictograph row has 2 symbols, each = 6. What does the row total?
Example 18
medium
A pictograph shows categories with 4, 6, and 3 symbols where 1 symbol = 5. What is the grand total of items?
Example 19
hard
You need to create a pictograph for this data: Red 18, Blue 27, Green 12, Yellow 9. Choose an appropriate key value and determine how many symbols each category needs.
Example 20
easy
A pictograph shows the number of books read by four students. Each book symbol represents 2 books. Amy has 3 symbols, Ben has 5 symbols, Cara has 2 symbols, and Dan has 4 symbols. How many books did each student read?