Binned Scatter Plots

This Tech Tip demonstrates how to create a binned scatterplot. In IBM SPSS Statistics, you can work inside a single, integrated interface to run descriptive statistics, regression, advanced statistics, and machine learning models. You can create publication-ready charts, tables, and decision trees in one tool. IBM SPSS Statistics is easy to use, provides analysis automation, comprehensive statistical tools, integration with open source, and help at your fingertips.  

A binned scatterplot is an effective visual tool for examining the relationship between two variables while considering the counts involved. Data examination is a crucial step in any analysis, and researchers and analysts can use visualizations to explore and verify their data. For instance, a scatterplot can be helpful if we want to investigate the relationship between respondents’ ages and their average daily television watching hours. However, incorporating counts into the scatterplot enhances the analysis.

To create a binned scatterplot, users should navigate to the Graphs menu and select “Graphboard Template Chooser.” This tool provides a variety of graph templates. Once the Graphboard Template Chooser dialog box is open, follow the prompts to select your variables. After selecting the variables, a series of chart icons appear. In this example, select “Age of Respondents” and “TV Hours per Day.” The binned scatterplot icon will become available since both variables are numeric and categorized as scale. Click on the icon and click “OK” to generate the scatterplot.

Users can further customize the appearance of the binned scatterplot by clicking on the “Options” tab and navigating to the “Stylesheet” section. Here, you can click the “Select” button to change the stylesheet and alter the look of the scatterplot.