Donut Chart ​

You can use a donut chart to show the part-to-whole relationships or composition of an element.

Is essentially the same as a pie chart, with the same limitations, but with a couple of advantages:

  • You can use the center of the chart to display more information, such as the total value or the labels for each segment.
  • Humans are not good at judging angles and area of segments compared to other visual variables, like the height of a bar chart. But by removing the center of the chart, the donut chart helps people to focus on the length of the arc instead.
Donut Chart Overview

Usage guidelines ​

When to use ​

Questions you can answer:

  • What is the composition of this data? A histogram is also appropriate to visualize the composition of a category.
  • What are the proportions relative to the total?
When not to use ​
  • If you want to compare the composition of multiple categories, use a stacked bar chart instead.
Usage recommendations ​
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Arrange values from largest to smaller, starting at 12 o'clock.
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More than 5 values will be difficult to read.
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It's preferable to use relative data, as percentages. In this case, the total can't go over 100%.
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Don't use two or more donut charts to compare changes or differences.
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As it's very difficult to perceive small differences between slices, include annotations with values.