Histograms calculate the distribution of values and present them as a bar chart. Each bar represents a bucket; the y-axis and the height of each bar represent the count of values that fall into each bucket, and the x-axis represents the value range.
For example, if you want to understand the distribution of people's heights, you can use a histogram visualization to identify patterns or insights in the data distribution:
{{<figuresrc="/static/img/docs/histogram-panel/histogram-example-v8-0.png"max-width="1025px"alt="A histogram visualization showing the distribution of people's heights">}}
After you've created a [dashboard](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/dashboards/build-dashboards/create-dashboard/), the following video shows you how to configure a histogram visualization:
{{<figuresrc="/static/img/docs/histogram-panel/histogram-example-time-series.png"max-width="1025px"alt="A histogram visualization showing the random walk distribution.">}}
{{<figuresrc="/static/img/docs/histogram-panel/histogram-example-height-weight.png"max-width="1025px"alt="A histogram visualization showing the male height and weight distribution">}}
| Bucket count | Specifies the number of bins used to group your data in the histogram, affecting the granularity of the displayed distribution. Leave this empty for automatic bucket count of 30. |
| Bucket size | The size of the buckets. Leave this empty for automatic bucket sizing (~10% of the full range). |
| [Bucket offset](#bucket-offset) | If the first bucket should not start at zero. A non-zero offset has the effect of shifting the aggregation window. |
| Combine series | This will merge all series and fields into a combined histogram. |
| Stacking | Controls how multiple series are displayed in the histogram. Choose from the following:<ul><li>**Off** - Series are not stacked, but instead shown side by side.</li><li>**Normal** - Series are stacked on top of each other, showing cumulative values.</li><li>**100%** - Series are stacked to fill 100% of the chart, showing the relative proportion of each series.</li></ul> |
| Line width | Controls line width of the bars. |
| Fill opacity | Controls the fill opacity bars. |
| [Gradient mode](#gradient-mode) | Set the mode of the gradient fill. Fill gradient is based on the line color. |
For example, 5-sized buckets that are 0-5, 5-10, 10-15 with a default 0 offset would become 2-7, 7-12, 12-17 with an offset of 2; offsets of 0, 5, or 10, in this case, would effectively do nothing.
Typically, this option would be used with an explicitly defined bucket size rather than automatic. For this setting to affect, the offset amount should be greater than 0 and less than the bucket size; values outside this range have the same effect as values within this range.
Set the mode of the gradient fill. Fill gradient is based on the line color. To change the color, use the standard [color scheme](ref:color-scheme) field option.
- **None** - No gradient fill. This is the default setting.
- **Opacity** - Transparency of the gradient is calculated based on the values on the Y-axis. The opacity of the fill is increasing with the values on the Y-axis.
- **Hue** - Gradient color is generated based on the hue of the line color.
- **Scheme** - The selected [color palette](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/panels-visualizations/configure-standard-options/#color-scheme) is applied to the histogram bars.
