Pie Chart, Donut Chart and Simple Pie Chart — what’s the difference?
What is the difference between these three circular charts you might be wondering? Here is a guide to choosing your next circular data visualisation with the help of some statistics on donut preferences and consumption in the office.
Pie Chart
The classic pie chart is known by all and disliked by some data scientists. Regardless of it’s divisiveness it can be a very useful chart for representing data which isn’t too complex.
A pie chart is a circular statistical diagram which is divided into segments to represent numerical portions. Each slice of the pie represents a category of data which makes up the whole. The size of the slice represents the size of the share of that category of data.
A best practice tip with pie charts is to keep it simple, a good pie chart should communicate the information at a quick glance
The example here shows the percentage split of favourite donut flavours based on an office survey.
Favourite donut flavours
Donut Chart
We don’t need to over complicate things, a donut chart is basically a pie chart with a hole in the middle, like a donut.
Each ‘slice’ of the donut still represents a category of data and the segments of the donut still make up a numerical portion of the whole. In the example below the data is showing a percentage of people who like donuts, dislike donuts or are ambivalent.
Donut Chart About Donuts
Simple Pie Chart
The simple pie chart is not really a pie chart at all, it is really a goal tracker in the format of a ring. The ring shows progress towards a fixed value. In the example here the chart is showing the progress towards finishing a donut, we can see 82% of the donut has been eaten.
Progress towards a finished donut
Why not make your own here!
