Speaking Stata: Spineplots and their kin
Nicholas J. Cox
Department of Geography
Durham University
Durham City, UK
[email protected]
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Abstract. The term spineplot has been applied over the last decade or so to a
type of bar chart used particularly for showing frequencies, proportions, or
percentages of two cross-classified categorical variables. The principle is
that the areas of rectangular tiles are proportional to the frequencies in
the cells of a contingency table. Often both coarse and fine structure are
easy to see, including departures from independence. The main idea has, in
fact, been rediscovered repeatedly over at least the last 130 years. In its
most general form, it has been widely publicized under the name mosaic
plots. This column introduces, discusses, and exemplifies a Stata
implementation of spineplots. It is noted that a restriction to two
variables is more apparent than real, as either axis of a spineplot can show
a composite variable defined by cross combinations of two or more variables.
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Nicholas J. Cox
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spineplots, mosaic plots, bar charts, graphics, categorical data
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