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I am trying to think of a name for the heading in a document where I am talking about charts and tables. Is there a concise, collective name for charts and tables I could use?

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  • Directly below is best. In the US "graphics" is immediately understood. More particular are photo, drawing, table, graph. I go with info-graphic if it is necessary to exclude (which I don't think it really does) all but tables and graphs.
    – user116032
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 19:35
  • Is a 'chart' a picture (like a bar chart)? 'Figure' might work for both.
    – Mitch
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 21:35

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As an alternative to the other suggestions offered, let me put forth some words that serve this purpose in various US environments.

When assigning students a project in which they need to present tables and charts in addition to (brilliantly written) text, I will ask for visuals generically, and will be given just what I seek.

Quoth M-W:

something (as a graphic) that appeals to the sight and is used for effect or illustration —usually used in plural

As an author of a textbook that includes charts, graphs and similar illustrations, I will talk to my publisher about figures and be understood perfectly, the context having eliminated any confusion between numbers and their depiction.

This usage for figure doesn't show up in a cursory look at M-W's online dictionary, although it certainly does in the monstrous dead-tree edition. Instead, look to the TEX community in SE to see that these charts and tables and things are indeed called figures, usually abbreviated as Fig.

While I won't quarrel with visualisation, especially at a couple of oceans' distance, and although I will grudgingly allow infographic as a comprehensible term despite its portmanteau neologism, I like these more generic terms better.

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  • Figures seems like the right answer here.
    – jejorda2
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 17:47
  • portmanteau neologism - well there's two words I am going to have to look up :)
    – Billy Moon
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 17:54
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"Infographic" is a word which means a display of information, and can apply to both a table or a graph equally.

Infographic: [noun] A visual representation of information or data, e.g. as a chart or diagram.

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Visualisation comes to mind.

In computing, data visualisation means

displaying data in more sophisticated ways such as infographics, dials and gauges, geographic maps, sparklines, heat maps, and detailed bar, pie and fever charts.

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The word statistics could be used.

a collection of quantitative data

[Merriam-Webster]

You could precede Statistics depending on what data you're representing. (For example, User Statistics, Site View Statistics, etc.).

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  • I'm not sure I would equate statistics - the numbers - with the charts and tables and so forth that have been used to represent them. It's a fine distinction, perhaps, but one that resonates almost instantaneously to my NE US sense of the language.
    – Rob_Ster
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 17:24

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