Short, accurate steps for the tools people ask about most — SPSS, MATLAB, Desmos, JMP, StatCrunch, FlowJo, Word and graphing calculators. Jump to the one you need, or skip them all and use the online maker.
SPSS offers several routes; the Chart Builder is the most modern.
Go to Graphs → Chart Builder and choose the Histogram gallery.
Drag your scale variable to the X-axis drop zone, then click OK.
Alternatively, Analyze → Descriptive Statistics → Frequencies → Charts → Histograms, optionally ticking the normal curve.
Modern MATLAB uses the histogram function, which replaces the older hist.
Run histogram(data) to bin and draw your vector automatically.
Use histogram(data, 20) for 20 bins, or 'BinWidth', 5 for a fixed width.
Add 'Normalization', 'probability' for relative frequency, or 'pdf' for a density.
Desmos can plot a histogram from a list with its built-in statistics function.
Type a list such as L=[12,15,18,21,...] on a new line, or add a table.
On a new line type histogram(L) to draw the bars.
Use histogram(L, 5) to make each bin 5 units wide.
JMP shows a histogram by default in the Distribution platform.
Go to Analyze → Distribution.
Assign your continuous column to Y, Columns and click OK; the histogram appears.
Use the red-triangle menu or the hand tool to change bin width and orientation.
StatCrunch builds a histogram from any data column in a couple of clicks.
Choose Graph → Histogram.
Pick the column you want to chart and set the bin width if needed.
Click Compute! to draw the histogram, then use Options to download it.
FlowJo is used for flow cytometry, where overlaying populations is the common goal.
Double-click a sample, then set the plot type to Histogram and choose your parameter on the X-axis.
Switch to the Layout Editor to combine multiple populations on one plot.
Drag additional populations onto the histogram; FlowJo stacks them in different colors so you can compare distributions.
Modern Word can insert a histogram directly; older versions borrow one from Excel.
Go to Insert → Chart, open the Histogram category and click OK.
Type or paste your numbers into the small data sheet Word opens.
If there is no Histogram type, build it in Excel and paste it in, or insert a column chart and set Gap Width to 0%.
Most graphing calculators plot histograms from a list of data.
Follow our full TI-84 histogram guide: STAT to enter data, STAT PLOT for the histogram, ZoomStat to display.
Open Menu → Statistics, enter your list, press GRAPH, set the graph type to Hist and choose the start value and bin width.
Use Trace on either calculator to read each bar’s range and count.
For a quick chart with no setup, an online maker is fastest. Among installed software, Google Sheets and JMP need the fewest clicks, while SPSS, MATLAB and R give the most control.
Create a histogram plot for one population, then in the Layout Editor drag additional populations onto the same plot. FlowJo stacks them with separate colors so you can compare distributions directly.
Modern Word and PowerPoint do: use Insert → Chart → Histogram. In older versions, build the chart in Excel and paste it in, or insert a column chart and set the gap width to 0.