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