The lollipop chart is a variation of the traditional horizontal bar graph. It is used to rank categories, show trends over time or to compare categories. The lollipop chart eliminates most of the text show in a traditional horizontal bar graph, making it more approachable and minimalistic which allows readers to quickly gather information accurately.
The chart below shows a lollipop graph created in Excel. It displays the Socioeconomic Status rankings of 6 major countries in 2010. The graph has minimal information and therefore is easy to read. The reader can quickly learn that the United States has the highest SES ranking while the UK has the lowest.
This type of chart can be used with any data that can be represented by a standard bar or column chart. It is especially useful when you have a large amount of categories to represent, making a bar graph too cluttered. Lollipop graphs can also be vertical like the one shown below taken from Visualbi. A vertical lollipop graph allows you to add labels inside the lollipop to easily highlight values. To learn more about lollipop graphs and how to create them click here.
