Free Stem and Leaf Plot Maker
Charts & GraphsMake a stem-and-leaf plot online: paste your numbers and get the plot with its key, decimals, split stems, back-to-back plots, median and mode. Free PNG, no signup.
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How to Use
- 1
Enter your numbers
Type or paste values under Data — commas, spaces, tabs or one per line, straight from a spreadsheet column. Decimals and negative numbers work, and the plot redraws as you type.
- 2
Pick the leaf unit
Auto uses the finest leaf that keeps the plot to 20 stems or fewer. Or choose 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 or 100 yourself. The key under the plot changes to match.
- 3
Split stems or compare two sets
Split each stem into 2 or 5 rows when values bunch up, or switch the plot to Back-to-back to compare two datasets on one shared stem column.
- 4
Read the statistics
The summary lists count, minimum, maximum, range, median, mean and mode. Turn on the median and mode marks to circle and underline those leaves on the plot.
- 5
Download or print
Download a PNG that matches the preview exactly. It is free, with no watermark. For a class worksheet, switch on blank leaves and download again for the answer key.
Why Choose GraphMake?
How to Read a Stem-and-Leaf Plot
Each row is a stem, and each digit to the right of the line is one data value. With the key 7 | 2 = 72, the row "7 | 2 2 5 8" holds four values: 72, 72, 75 and 78. Count the leaves and you have the number of values; read them in order and you have the data, sorted.
That is what a stem-and-leaf plot has over a histogram: it keeps every value. A histogram tells you that eight students scored in the 70s; the stem-and-leaf plot tells you which scores they were, and still shows the same shape, because each row's length is its frequency. For hundreds of values, where listing every one stops being useful, switch to the histogram maker.
Empty stems matter too. A stem with no leaves is a gap in the data, and leaving it out would make the distribution look more even than it is. This maker always draws every stem between the lowest and the highest value.
Choosing the Leaf Unit
The leaf unit decides which digit becomes the leaf. For whole numbers from 50 to 99, a leaf unit of 1 is natural: 72 is stem 7, leaf 2. For values such as 0.21 to 0.58, use 0.01: 0.31 is stem 3, leaf 1. For values in the thousands, a leaf unit of 10 or 100 keeps the plot from running to hundreds of stems.
A good plot has somewhere between about 5 and 20 stems. Auto picks the finest leaf unit that stays inside that limit. If everything lands on one or two stems, split the stems instead of forcing a finer leaf.
When the leaf unit is coarser than your data, values are rounded to it (half away from zero). The plot says when that has happened, and the summary statistics are always worked out from your exact values.
Stem-and-Leaf Plots in the Classroom
Stem-and-leaf plots are usually taught right before histograms and box plots, because they make the step from a list of numbers to a distribution visible. Students can see a median by counting leaves, a mode as a repeated leaf, and skew as a lopsided shape.
Worksheet mode turns any dataset into an exercise: the stems and the key stay, the leaves are blanked into write-on lines, and the raw data is printed underneath. Download that for the class, then switch it off and download again for the answer key.
Back-to-back plots make comparison questions easy to set. Put two classes, two teams or two experiment conditions on one stem column, and ask which group has the higher median or the wider spread.
What You Can Create
Math Homework
Check a hand-drawn plot, find the median and mode, and see the right key for decimal data.
Class Worksheets
Blank the leaves to make a fill-in worksheet from any dataset, then download the answer key.
Comparing Two Groups
Put two classes, teams or trials back to back on one stem column and compare them at a glance.
Lab Measurements
Show every measurement with its exact digits, which a histogram hides inside its bars.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you make a stem-and-leaf plot?
Put the data in order, then split every value into a stem (all digits but the last) and a leaf (the last digit). Write each stem once in a column, list its leaves in order beside it, and add a key such as 7 | 2 = 72. This maker does all of that as you type, including the key and any empty stems in between.
What does the key in a stem-and-leaf plot mean?
The key says what one stem and leaf stand for. Without it, 12 | 3 could mean 123, 12.3 or 1.23. A key like "12 | 3 = 12.3" removes the doubt. Here the key is built from a value in your own data, so it always agrees with the plot, and it changes when you change the leaf unit.
Can I make a stem-and-leaf plot with decimals?
Yes. Pick leaf unit 0.1 or 0.01; Auto does this for decimal data. At 0.1, the value 4.7 is stem 4, leaf 7. A value with more decimal places than the leaf is rounded to the leaf, and the plot notes that its leaves are rounded.
How are negative numbers shown?
Negative values get their own stems, including a −0 stem for values between −1 and 0 (at leaf unit 1, that is −9 to −1). Rows run from the lowest value at the top to the highest at the bottom, and every row reads in increasing value, so −2 | 7 3 means −27 and −23.
What is a split stem-and-leaf plot?
When most values share only a few stems, the plot is too cramped to show a shape. Splitting gives each stem two rows (leaves 0–4, then 5–9) or five rows (0–1, 2–3, 4–5, 6–7, 8–9), which spreads the data out without changing it.
What is a back-to-back stem-and-leaf plot?
Two datasets share one stem column. One set's leaves go to the left and the other's to the right, and on both sides the values grow outward from the stem. It is the standard way to compare two groups, such as two classes' scores on the same test. The summary shows both groups side by side.
How do I find the median and mode on a stem-and-leaf plot?
The leaves are already in order, so count in from either end to the middle leaf, or the middle two leaves when the count is even: that is the median. The mode is the value whose leaf repeats most often on one stem. Turn on the Median and Mode marks and the plot circles and underlines them for you.
Is this stem-and-leaf plot maker free?
Yes. Making the plot and downloading it as a PNG is free, with no signup and no watermark. SVG and high-resolution PNG downloads are part of GraphMake Pro.
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