Table of contents

  1. Choosing the correct chart
  2. Choice of data
  3. Comparing data sets – shared horizons
  4. Comparisons of magnitude (size)
  5. Time series
  6. Bar charts for time series
  7. Line charts for time series
  8. Dot plot with line for time series
  9. Multiple time series
  10. Small changes over time, not starting the y-axis at zero
  11. Ranking
  12. Part-to-whole
  13. Deviation
  14. Distribution
  15. Correlation

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Part-to-whole

To show:

  • ratio
  • percentage
  • proportion
  • share
  • breakdown
  • make up
  • hierarchy

Bar charts and pie charts should be used to show part to whole relationships.

Pie charts should only be used when there are less than six categories, otherwise use a bar chart or, if appropriate, combine categories.

Rank the categories in a pie chart and start the first segment at the 12 o’clock position.

Segments of a pie chart must sum to 100%. If the categories do not sum to a meaningful whole, don’t use a pie chart. Where appropriate categories can be combined to highlight a certain message but should never be removed.

All main categories included

Religion categories combined

No religion and not stated categories removed

If no categories are dominant use a bar chart to illustrate your data.

Multiple part to whole

Use bars to enable comparisons to be made across multiple part to whole charts.

To enable comparisons within sub-categories

To enable comparisons across sub-categories