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Pie Charts
Pie charts are used to show portions of a whole. An amount is divided into categories by percentage and the slice sizes are relative to the percentage of the category. Pie charts are great to use in showing the results of polls if there are a limited number of categories. If you have too many categories the chart becomes difficult to read. Below I have created two pie charts based on data from Pew Research regarding Americans’ views on money in politics.
The above chart highlights what a higher proportion of respondents believe while the chart below highlights what a lower proportion of respondents believe. Choosing the right chart but also a good title for the chart is key for letting viewers know what information is important.
I believe that both of these datasets are great use cases for pie charts because they show what portion of respondents. Other good uses of pie charts is in finance. Household budgets are well represented by pie charts. Pie charts are also a great tool to use when visualizing portfolio allocations. One of the most important things to avoid with pie charts is using incompatible data. If the proportions do not sum to 100%, the data is not a good use case for a pie chart. There are many different options for visualizations and a pie chart is great for a simple and quick way to represent proportional data effectively to viewers.
Pie Charts
Pie charts, when done the right way, can portray some of the simplest data in a very uniform and easy to comprehend way. The easiest data to portray using a pie chart would be data that represents “parts of a whole”, but this is not the only data that can be used in a pie chart. We can also use percentages to show contributions to a whole. One of the most important things to remember though when creating a chart to show this type of relationship, is that the data values within the pie chart must always add up to 100. It is also important to remember that pie charts, as well as any other chart or infographic, are used to tell stories. Because of this, we have to remember to keep the story as straightforward and concise as possible. Always remember to keep your infographics as clear as possible and to not jumble too much information or design in the graphic.
The information I gathered was from a study done of 626 restaurant goers, asking how many times a week they go out to eat. This information gathered from Tasting Table, I believe is best suited in a pie chart because it was presented to me in percentages of people. Percentages are easiest represented in a pie chart because it represents part of the 626 people surveyed.
Link to study: https://www.tastingtable.com/912246/new-survey-shows-how-often-people-typically-eat-out/
Pie Charts
I felt a pie chart was an ideal choice to show monthly household expenses. It provides a clear and visually appealing way to represent various expense categories within a budget in proportion. Viewers can quickly identify the larger and smaller slices, thus providing immediate understanding where the money is going. You are able to make comparisons and it helps with seeing where spending is a priority and make informed decisions. I referred to From data to Viz | Find the graphic you need (data-to-viz.com) which helps you choosing an appropriate graph for your data and excel itself had tutorials that walked you through choosing correct pie chart. I also think a bar chart could work in this example as well.
Unveiling the Power of Pie Charts in Data Visualization
The Strength of Pie Charts
Pie charts are like the unsung heroes of data visualization. They might appear humble, but their ability to convey the composition of a whole is unmatched. They shine when you need to represent percentages and proportions, making it easy to grasp the distribution of elements. For instance, in a recent project, I employed a pie chart to showcase a company’s revenue breakdown by product category. The result was a clear and accessible snapshot of each category’s contribution to the total revenue.
When to Use Alternatives
While pie charts have their merits, it’s crucial to recognize when to opt for an alternative chart type. Bar charts are more effective when comparing many categories, and line charts excel at illustrating time-series data. In cases with numerous subcategories, stacked bar charts or treemaps might be the better choice.
Designing a Winning Pie Chart
To create an impactful pie chart, follow a few design principles. Use labels to identify each segment, explode important segments for emphasis, limit your color palette, avoid 3D effects, and add a legend if needed. These tweaks ensure clarity and readability, making your pie chart an engaging and comprehensible tool for data presentation.
In a world where data speaks volumes, mastering the art of pie chart design is a valuable skill for college students and aspiring data analysts. It’s simplicity combined with its versatility makes it a go-to choice for visually representing data. By understanding when to use a pie chart, and by adhering to these design principles, we can present data effectively and be well-prepared for the data-driven challenges of tomorrow.
Example
I made a pie chart on the NFC East in the NFL of choice to visualize the data. The chart effectively conveys the distribution of wins among the four teams in the division: the NY Giants, Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Dallas Cowboys. This choice is compelling because it simplifies the complex data by visually showcasing how each team’s wins contribute to the whole, which, in this case, is the total wins in the division over the specified timeframe.
The pie chart excels when there’s a limited number of categories, which aligns perfectly with our scenario of only four teams. This ensures a clear and straightforward representation, making it easy to understand the proportions of wins each team has contributed. For viewers, this pie chart serves as a quick and intuitive way to gauge the performance of each team in the NFC East during the past decade.
By Shaun Sneddon
Global Plastic Waste Management Statistics – The Use of a Pie chart
I used a pie chart to visualize the data below because it best fits it and makes it extremely easy to consume and understand. The data highlighted in this blog is in proportions. It is also categorical data.
WHY PIE CHARTS
Anytime you try to show that the thing you are talking about adds up to 100%, you are telling a story about parts of a whole. Alternatively, whenever you need to describe the proportionate components of a group, this is a story about a part-to-a-whole. In the plastic-related case highlighted above, it is convenient to use pie charts to visualize the dataset. However, there is a caveat: do not use a pie chart to tell a story about parts to a whole if there are five or more wedges. This clutters the information presented in the diagram and makes it difficult to comprehend. I believe that a pie chart best fits the data set discussed above. Any other visualization used will defeat the overall purpose.
Below are a few design tips to consider when constructing a pie chart:
- Use presentable fonts
- Do not use colors that are too bright
- Do not use 3-D designs
- Always use legends for easy comprehension of the data.
- Do not use pie charts when there are five or more wedges.
UN CONTRIBUTION: Pie Chart Edition
Pie charts are a difficult tool to use because they require very specific scenarios to be the most applicable. For my perfect-use case I decided to display the contributions of countries to the UN budget, shown as a percentage.
I think this is a perfect data set to use a pie chart because it’s simple and doesn’t have an excess of labels. This data set as it’s shown tells you that the US contributes almost one quarter of the total UN budget, and that the top four countries combined contribute nearly as much as the remaining 130 members combined. You may be able to add a fifth or sixth country to this pie chart, but then you lose the 50:50 narrative that is very easily read here.
Source: www.auswaertiges-amt.de/
-Jack Swenson
Pie Charts
This data set is a perfect case for a pie chart. The percentages add up to 100. This means that all of the parts add up to a whole, which is a crucial part of a pie chart. A pie chart is also good to use here because there are only 6 categories. There is not too much going on and the chart does not look cluttered. It is very easy to read and the audience can easily compare the sizes of the slices to each other to tell which sport is more popular.
The data here is not served better as something other than a pie. A bar chart would work, but a pie chart is the most effective visualization for this data set.
I came across multiple design strategies to make this pie chart more appealing. First I color coded the different slices. This makes it easier to differentiate the slices from one another. Another thing I did was I put the category name and percentage in every slice of the pie. The percentage provides a more in depth look at the data. Also, adding the category name allowed me to take away the legend. This makes it easier for the reader to digest the information. They no longer have to glance at the legend, then to the chart, then back and forth. All of the information is in the pie chart.