Final answer:
A bar chart is most suitable for displaying nominal or ordinal level variables, as it allows for easy comparison of categories or representation of changes over time. For continuous data, a histogram is more appropriate. The correct option is D.
Step-by-step explanation:
A bar chart is most likely used to display either a nominal level variable or an ordinal level variable. A nominal level variable refers to data that is categorized without a natural order or ranking, such as countries, colors, or types of food. An ordinal level variable, on the other hand, involves categories with a clear order, like movie ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R), levels of education, or stages of a product lifecycle.
In a bar graph, the length of the bar for each category represents the number or percent of individuals in each category. We use bar graphs when we want to compare categories or display changes over time. For example, bars can represent different countries or years on the horizontal axis, while the vertical axis can represent a numerical or a percentage value, such as population size, sales figures, or rates of change. This allows the viewer to easily compare across the different categories.
Although bar graphs can also be used for continuous data, histograms are generally preferred for continuous variables because they show the distribution of the variable's values. For instance, income, which is a continuous variable, is better represented by a histogram. To conclude, bar charts are the better choice for representing categorical data (either nominal or ordinal), when the primary goal is to compare sizes, quantities, rates, or other quantitative categories.