Let’s use the data we have for the demand of cakes at our bake sale to explain how you would draw a demand curve.
From the data in our table we can tell that when the price of cakes increases, the demand for them decreases - when the price increases from €1 to €2, demand decreases from 100 to 80 cakes.
STEP 1 LABEL THE TITLE AND AXES CLEARLY
» The title should include what you are measuring e.g. “demand for cakes at a bake sale”
» Y-axis (vertical) is the price (€)
» X-axis (horizontal) is the quantity in units
» At €5, quantity demanded is 20, so we would plot (20, €5)
STEP 2
PLOT THE DEMAND CURVE
» At €4, quantity demanded is 40, so we would plot (40, €4)…
€5 €4 €3 €2 €1
€0 0 20 40 60 80 100 Quantity Demanded (Units) DEMAND FOR CAKES AT A BAKE SALE STEP 3 JOIN THE DOTS
» Draw a line connecting the dots you have plotted
€5 €4 €3 €2 €1
€0 0 20 40 60 80 100 Quantity Demanded (Units) DEMAND FOR CAKES AT A BAKE SALE STEP 4 LABEL THE CURVE