diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/explorer/explorer_charts/explorer_charts_container_service.js b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/explorer/explorer_charts/explorer_charts_container_service.js
index 11b1f14bec36e..7e78b2fc8fcda 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/explorer/explorer_charts/explorer_charts_container_service.js
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/explorer/explorer_charts/explorer_charts_container_service.js
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ export function explorerChartsContainerServiceFactory(
     // For now just take first 6 (or 8 if 4 charts per row).
     const maxSeriesToPlot = Math.max(chartsPerRow * 2, 6);
     const recordsToPlot = allSeriesRecords.slice(0, maxSeriesToPlot);
-    const seriesConfigs = buildDataConfigs(recordsToPlot);
+    const seriesConfigs = recordsToPlot.map(buildConfig);
 
     // Calculate the time range of the charts, which is a function of the chart width and max job bucket span.
     data.tooManyBuckets = false;
@@ -504,11 +504,6 @@ export function explorerChartsContainerServiceFactory(
     return recordsForSeries;
   }
 
-  function buildDataConfigs(anomalyRecords) {
-    // Build the chart configuration for each anomaly record.
-    return anomalyRecords.map(buildConfig);
-  }
-
   function calculateChartRange(seriesConfigs, earliestMs, latestMs, chartWidth, recordsToPlot, timeFieldName) {
     let tooManyBuckets = false;
     // Calculate the time range for the charts.
diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/services/results_service.js b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/services/results_service.js
index 5973d94e724be..7ca03ab84c29a 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/services/results_service.js
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/services/results_service.js
@@ -1399,6 +1399,8 @@ function getEventRateData(
 // Returned response contains a results property, which is an object
 // of document counts against time (epoch millis).
 const SAMPLER_TOP_TERMS_SHARD_SIZE = 200;
+const ENTITY_AGGREGATION_SIZE = 10;
+const AGGREGATION_MIN_DOC_COUNT = 1;
 function getEventDistributionData(
   index,
   types,
@@ -1412,8 +1414,7 @@ function getEventDistributionData(
   latestMs,
   interval) {
   return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
-    // only get this data for count (used by rare chart)
-    if (metricFunction !== 'count' || splitField === undefined) {
+    if (splitField === undefined) {
       return resolve([]);
     }
 
@@ -1464,7 +1465,7 @@ function getEventDistributionData(
           date_histogram: {
             field: timeFieldName,
             interval: interval,
-            min_doc_count: 0
+            min_doc_count: AGGREGATION_MIN_DOC_COUNT
           },
           aggs: {
             sample: {
@@ -1475,7 +1476,8 @@ function getEventDistributionData(
                 entities: {
                   terms: {
                     field: splitField.fieldName,
-                    size: 10
+                    size: ENTITY_AGGREGATION_SIZE,
+                    min_doc_count: AGGREGATION_MIN_DOC_COUNT
                   }
                 }
               }
@@ -1491,7 +1493,7 @@ function getEventDistributionData(
     }
 
     if (metricFieldName !== undefined && metricFieldName !== '') {
-      body.aggs.byTime.aggs = {};
+      body.aggs.byTime.aggs.sample.aggs.entities.aggs = {};
 
       const metricAgg = {
         [metricFunction]: {
@@ -1502,7 +1504,7 @@ function getEventDistributionData(
       if (metricFunction === 'percentiles') {
         metricAgg[metricFunction].percents = [ML_MEDIAN_PERCENTS];
       }
-      body.aggs.byTime.aggs.metric = metricAgg;
+      body.aggs.byTime.aggs.sample.aggs.entities.aggs.metric = metricAgg;
     }
 
     ml.esSearch({
@@ -1516,10 +1518,11 @@ function getEventDistributionData(
           const date = +dataForTime.key;
           const entities = _.get(dataForTime, ['sample', 'entities', 'buckets'], []);
           entities.forEach((entity) => {
+            const value = (metricFunction === 'count') ? entity.doc_count : entity.metric.value;
             d.push({
               date,
               entity: entity.key,
-              value: entity.doc_count
+              value
             });
           });
           return d;
diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/util/chart_utils.js b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/util/chart_utils.js
index 4cf3293db01fd..09de9966ae8eb 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/util/chart_utils.js
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/util/chart_utils.js
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ export function getChartType(config) {
     return CHART_TYPE.EVENT_DISTRIBUTION;
   } else if (
     POPULATION_DISTRIBUTION_ENABLED &&
-    config.functionDescription === 'count' &&
+    config.functionDescription !== 'rare' &&
     config.entityFields.some(f => f.fieldType === 'over')
   ) {
     return CHART_TYPE.POPULATION_DISTRIBUTION;