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Best Python Chart Examples

The Python Graph Gallery has always been a reservoir of inspiration, providing hundreds of foundational chart examples for newcomers and seasoned developers alike.

While our vast collection offers a stepping stone into the world of data visualization, the following list stands out.

Every chart here represents the pinnacle of craftsmanship, exhibiting the depths to which matplotlib can be customized. These are not just graphs; they are polished masterpieces, ready for publication.

While I'm deeply indebted to the original authors for their stellar work, it's worth noting that many of these visualizations were first conceived in R, a testament to its rich visualization ecosystem. In an endeavor to bring the best to our Python community, I've translated these gems to further showcase the versatility and power of matplotlib.

Dive in and get inspired! 😍

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Salary evolution

Minimalist black and white line chart about the salary evolution of a freelance data scientist

by Joseph Barbier

Beyond the choropleth: a polygon map

Number of shops within a 20-minute round-trip walk

by Sebastiaan Broekema

Salary in the USA

Average salary in the USA in 2025

by Joseph Barbier

Unemployment rate in Belgium

Breakdown and distribution of the unemployment rate in Belgium

by Koen Van den Eeckhout

Animal adoption evolution

Waffle chart about animal adoption evolution between 2017 and 2024.

by Joseph Barbier

Unemployment rates in the US

Combine two choropleth maps with different granularities

by Joseph Barbier

HDI distribution in Sao Paulo

Choropleth map with a barplot

by Vinicius Oike Reginatto

Evolution of temperature variation

Temperature change compared to the average between 1951 and 1980.

by Joseph Barbier

Share of cereals used as animal feeds

Change in the number of storms by storm type between 2010 and 2022.

by Muhammad Azhar

Share of cereals used as animal feeds

Breakdown by continent of the percentage of cereals used for animal feed.

by Benjamin Nowak

Japan's population evolution

Evolution of Japan's population between 1952 and 2024.

by Joseph Barbier

Earthquakes around the world

Repartition of earthquakes around the world, with description of extensive description and annotations.

by Joseph Barbier

Density population in Asia

Cartogram (non-contiguous) of population density in Asia.

by Joseph Barbier

CO2 consumption in Europe

Choropleth map of CO2 consumption per capita in Europe, with a custom legend.

by Joseph Barbier

London recycling rates

Repartition of London recycling rates by boroughs, with small multiples of waffle charts.

by Lisa Hornung

Evolution of natural disasters

Number of natural disasters over time per disaster type, with inflexion arrows for the legend.

by Joseph Barbier

Unemployment rate during COVID-19

Evolution of unemployment rates between different regions across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.

by Joseph Barbier

Lollipop about music genres

A lollipop plot with a background image to visualize the popularity of music genres over time.

by Joseph Barbier

Map with scatter plot on top

Path and duration of solar eclipses in the USA, in 2023 and 2024.

by Joseph Barbier

Multiple choropleth map

Combine multiple maps about happiness together, with a lollipop plot for the legend.

by Joseph Barbier

Scatter plot with specific highlights

Relationship between footprint and biocapacity of countries, with specific highlights on some countries.

by Joseph Barbier

Dumbell chart

Advanced dumbell chart about wins and losses in the Bundesliga.

by Cédric Scherer

Double heatmap for comparison

A double heatmap to compare normalized and non-normalized data about energy consumption in France

by Joseph Barbier

Ridgeline with quantiles display

A ridgeline plot with quantiles and annotations to visualize the price distribution of rents in San Francisco.

by Ansgar Wolsing

Polished table with bubbles

Investigating the 10 best and worst countries to live in, with bubble in cells to represent the data. A good way to showcase the plottable library.

by Fortune Uwha

Line chart with word cloud

Movie titles in the background of a line chart to visualize average ratings over time.

by Joseph Barbier

Mini stacked areas for US states

This compendium of stacked area charts went viral. Read a translation in python of this work by Enrin, originally written in R.

by Erin

Choropleth map with gradient color

A choropleth map with a gradient color scale to visualize the number of people with cancer in European countries.

by Joseph Barbier

Ordered & Mirrored barplot

A highly customized circular barplot visualizing Star Wars data using Python and Matplotlib. It provides a step-by-step guide from a basic barplot to a fully customized version including fonts, y-axis scaling, annotations and legend.

by Lisa Hornung

Ordered & Mirrored barplot

A mirror barplot with individual observations using the Matplotlib library to visualize data about the Erasmus Program in European countries.

by Benjamin Nowak

Scatterplot with grouping, highlighting and annotation

A scatter plot with custom annotations and colors, with some markers being circled.

by Data Wrapper

Histogram with clean color scale and annotation

A clean and insightful histogram produced by the french institute of statistics showing the salary distribution in the country.

by INSEE

Area over flexible baseline chart

An area over a flexible baseline to show deviations from a reference or baseline made with Python and Matplotlib or Plotly.

by J. Kühn

Circular Barplot

A circular barchart with several features per group made with Python and Matplotlib

by T. Stadler

Circular Lollipop Plot

A circular lollipop plot with customized layout, great color palette and in circle legend

by C. Scherer

Violin and Boxplot combination

Allows the comparison of several groups with statistical test results on top

by T. Wang

Circle Heatmap

A heatmap where each cell is filled by a circle with varying size

by M. Siple

Circular barplot

A circular barplot with small multiples

by M. Siple

Line chart with faceting

Several highlighted lineplots arranged in a multi panel layout to explore the evolution of the water source installation rankings by country

by A. Madjid

Scatterplot with images

A scatter plot with images inside each marker to provide additional context

by Tanya Shapiro

Horizontal Barplot

A reproduction of an horizontal barplot made by The Economist to showcase the power of Python for dataviz

by The Economist

Parallel chart

A parallel coordinate chart to explore the maximum ages recorded for different species of lemurs with Python and Matplotlib.

by G. Karamanis

Inline labels

Good looking line chart with inline labels at the end of each line

by C. Scherer

Line chart from the Economist

Mimicking the style of the Economist to get a clean line chart

by The Economist

Area chart from the Economist

Mimicking the style of the Economist to get a clean area chart

by The Economist

Lollipop chart

A highly customized lollipop chart showing world records for the Mario Kart 64 racing game on the Nintendo 64

by C. Scherer

Line chart with small multiple

A line chart with several groups per panel on a small multiple layout. With a beautiful color palette.

by O. Medina

Radar chart with matplotlib

A highly customized radar chart with custom annotations and labels to explore the palmerpenguins dataset made with Python and Matplotlib.

by T. Wang

Astronaut Scatterplot

A chart made of a scatterplot with variable color, shape, and opacity, and several annotations to explore the relationship between the characteristics of astronauts and space missions

by C. Thompson

Scatterplot with regression fit

A custom scatterplot with an overlayed regression fit and auto-positioned labels to explore the relationship between the Corruption Perceptions Index and Human Development Index

by C. O. Wilke

Stacked barchart

A clean stacked barplot with nice color palette, some very clean inline labels, a powerful title and slick footer caption with logos.

by G. Fontana

X-men Streamchart

A streamchart to explore the appearances of the most popular characters in Chris Claremont's X-Men comics with Python

by C. Scherer

Scatterplot with text repel

A custom scatterplot with auto-positioned labels to explore the palmerpenguins dataset made with Python and Matplotlib

by T. Wang

Timeseries and faceting

Multiple lineplots with filled areas with a customized layout to explore the evolution of animal rescues across different boroughs in London

by G. Karamanis

Polar bar chart

A polar bar chart showing the number of spanish speakers per country

by nyx-it-up

Hourly heatmap

A very clean heatmap used as a timeseries

by J. MacKintosh

Line chart & small multiple

Small multiple is a dataviz technique allowing to study several groups on the same figure. Repeating all groups but faded out adds some useful context to each section.

by G. Fontana

Barplot with annotations and arrows

A barplot with annotations and arrows to highlight the most important features of the data

by J. Barbier

Note that I am always hunting for the best charts made with Python! If you have any examples in mind that should be showcased here, please let me know 🙏.

overview of the matplotlib journey landing page

If you like those examples, you will love Matplotlib Journey. It's an interactive online course crafted to transform you into a Matplotlib dataviz expert. It provides a clear, big-picture understanding of how data visualization works in Python, empowering you to grasp any example from the gallery with ease.

Finally, Understand Matplotlib.

🚨 Grab the Data To Viz poster!

Do you know all the chart types? Do you know which one you should pick? I made a decision tree that answers those questions. You can download it for free!

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