---
title: Line of Best Fit
description: The line of best fit is used to identify the trend on a scatter plot graph.
---

[Realized 1031 Glossary of Terms ](https://www.realized1031.com/glossary)

# [Line of Best Fit](https://www.realized1031.com/glossary/line-of-best-fit)

 Written by [The Realized Team](https://www.realized1031.com/glossary/author/the-realized-team) | Jun 20, 2022 12:00:00 PM

The line of best fit is used to identify the trend on a scatter plot graph. This line is also called a regression line. It can be found by using the least-squares method, which results in a geometric equation for the line. The line of best fit shows a relationship between points in a scatter plot. However, if the various scatter plot data points are too scattered, a trend will not be identifiable, and the line of best fit will be unreliable.

An example of a line of best fit is plotting manager experience (x-axis) to salary (y-axis). As experience increases, so does salary. If 10 different managers at different stages in their careers are plotted, we should see a line that goes from the bottom left to the upper right.

[View full post](https://www.realized1031.com/glossary/line-of-best-fit)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "The Realized Team"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2022-06-20T19:07:26.278Z",
  "datePublished" : "2022-06-20T12:00:00Z",
  "headline" : "Line of Best Fit",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 627,
    "url" : "https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/733513/social-suggested-images/Realized_Glossary_Graphic-4.jpg",
    "width" : 1200
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.realized1031.com/glossary/line-of-best-fit",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60.0,
      "url" : "http://www.realized1031.com/hubfs/Images/Brand/Logo/Realized/Realized-Logo-Black-No-Margin-296x60-AMP.png",
      "width" : 296.0
    },
    "name" : "Glossary of Terms"
  }
}
```