Notes

Pie charts represent a “part-to-whole” relationship. That is, they show the relative size of multiple elements which, when combined, represent a total entity of some sort.

  • Smith, Alan. How Charts Work (p. 168). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.

Pie charts aren’t as effective at showing pure magnitude comparisons of the components as a bar chart (we shall learn why later in Chapter 13 “The science behind good charts”) – because readers find it harder to estimate precise values.

Relationship to show

Variants