lacking vs sparse

lacking

adj
  • Missing or not having enough of (a good quality, etc). 

noun
  • The absence of something; a lack. 

sparse

adj
  • Not dense; meager; scanty 

  • Having few nonzero elements 

  • Having widely spaced intervals. 

How often have the words lacking and sparse occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )