Choose the right chart type: pie chart or bar chart?

1. Pie Chart
or
Bar Chart?
CHOOSE THE RIGHT CHART TYPE

2. Pie Chart or Bar Chart?
This is your data:
What is the best chart type:
A B C D E
39 36 11 9 5
A
B
C
D
E
E
D
C
B
A
Pie chart? or Bar chart?

3. Pie Chart or Bar Chart?
The short answer:
Create a bar chart
A bar chart is almost always a better choice than a pie chart.

4. Pie Chart or Bar Chart?
The long answer:
It depends
What’s your point?

5. What’s Your Point?
What’s your message for your audience?
What’s the ONE thing you want people to remember?
Is it important to show that A and B
make up 75% of the total?
Or do you want to show that A is larger than B?
A > B
A + B = 75%

6. Showing a Percentage
What’s your point?
In which chart is it easier to see that A and B make up 75% of the total:
A
B
C
D
E
E
D
C
B
A
Pie chart? or Bar chart?
A + B = 75%

7. Showing a Percentage
What’s your point?
In which chart is it easier to see that A and B make up 75% of the total:
A
B
C
D
E
E
D
C
B
A
Pie chart! or Bar chart?
A + B = 75%

8. Showing a Percentage
What’s your point?
TIP
Emphasize your point with color:
A
B
C
D
E
A
B
C
D
E
A + B = 75%

9. Showing a Percentage
IMPORTANT
Only create a pie chart when you want to show the percentage of
ONE category or ONE group of categories.
Do want to show the percentage of more than one group or category?
Don’t create a pie chart, create a bar chart instead. I’ll show you why...

10. Comparing Values
What’s your point?
In which chart is it easier to see that A is larger than B:
A
B
C
D
E
E
D
C
B
A
Pie chart? or Bar chart?
A > B

11. Comparing Values
What’s your point?
In which chart is it easier to see that A is larger than B:
A
B
C
D
E
E
D
C
B
A
Pie chart? or Bar chart!
A > B

12. Comparing Values
Create a bar chart when you want to compare values.
Why?
Because our brain is not good at comparing the parts of a pie chart, but
it’s very good at comparing the length of bars in a bar chart.

13. What’s My Point?
A bar chart is almost always a
better choice than a pie chart.
Why?
In most cases your audience wants to compare values. And comparing
values is much easier in a bar chart than a pie chart.
E
D
C
B
A