How to use scatter plots to explore the relationship between two indicators, summarize it with a regression line, and highlight individual countries.
Scatter plots show relationships between two indicators.
Each dot represents a country, positioned according to its value on each axis.
In this example, the horizontal axis shows the share of family-planning demand satisfied by modern methods, and the vertical axis shows the fertility rate. The downward pattern of the scatter plot suggests that countries with higher levels of family-planning demand satisfied by modern methods tend to have lower fertility rates.
Add a regression line to summarize the relationship.
The fitted line summarizes the overall relationship between the two indicators. In this example, the line slopes downward, indicating that countries with higher levels of family-planning demand satisfied by modern methods tend to have lower fertility rates.
The individual dots remain important. Countries do not all fall on the line, revealing variation around the overall trend and highlighting countries that differ from the expected pattern.
Highlighted countries provide examples of variation around the overall pattern.
In this example, Chad is highlighted in the upper left, with low family-planning demand satisfied by modern methods and high fertility, while the United States is highlighted in the lower right, with high demand satisfied and low fertility. Kazakhstan sits above the regression line, illustrating that some countries differ from the overall trend.
Highlighting countries helps you move beyond the overall pattern to explore how individual countries compare.