This thesis investigates how narrative knowledge has been and how it might be applied in the design of graphic presentations of statistics. Initially, historical and cultural factors are critically discussed in order to identify the reasons why narrative came to be indicated, by literature on dissemination of statistics and information design, as a solution to information sharing issues. Next, theoretical knowledge about narrative (its conceptualization, constituent elements and formal structuration) are reviewed and then applied both in the examination of artefacts that graphically display information (research reports, news and infographics, among others) and in the design of an experimental image-text narrative that shows statistics from the Brazilian demographic censuses. As a method, the thesis follows qualitative research procedures based on Paul Ricoeur s hermeneutics and his concept of emplotment, regarded by the author as the formal principle of narrative configuration. The thesis demonstrates how problems of representation influence the job of portraying a social collective through statistics and provides notes to address design and narrative issues so that the produced picture reaches its proper effect or ergon: a reliable understanding of how this collectivity is.