How to make pie chart in Excel with percentages

Pie charts are used to display the contribution of each value (slice) to a total (pie). Pie charts always use one data series.

Table of Contents Show

Step 1: Have a list of data in Excel
Step 2: Highlight the data
Step 3: In Excel, go to INSERT in the menu. Then select CHART. Then select PIE
Show percentage in a pie chart:

To create a pie chart of the 2017 data series, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:D2.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Pie symbol.

3. Click Pie.

Result:

4. Click on the pie to select the whole pie. Click on a slice to drag it away from the center.

Result:

Note: only if you have numeric labels, empty cell A1 before you create the pie chart. By doing this, Excel does not recognize the numbers in column A as a data series and automatically creates the correct chart. After creating the chart, you can enter the text Year into cell A1 if you like.

Let's create one more cool pie chart.

5. Select the range A1:D1, hold down CTRL and select the range A3:D3.

6. Create the pie chart (repeat steps 2-3).

7. Click the legend at the bottom and press Delete.

8. Select the pie chart.

9. Click the + button on the right side of the chart and click the check box next to Data Labels.

10. Click the paintbrush icon on the right side of the chart and change the color scheme of the pie chart.

Result:

11. Right click the pie chart and click Format Data Labels.

12. Check Category Name, uncheck Value, check Percentage and click Center.

Result:

Note: right click the data labels and click Font to change the font size and font color of the data labels.

Video Source (04:11 mins) | Transcript

Step 1: Have a list of data in Excel

This data can be numbers or percentages. The pie chart will be a representation of the percentages of the data total.

Example 1:

Here is a list of different fruits and the number of each. Notice that they add up to a total of 50.

Example 2:

Here is a list of the favorite color percentages of some population of people. Notice that the total percentage adds up to 100%.

Step 2: Highlight the data

Highlight the data. If you want to have the labels on the chart, you need to highlight the labels of the data as well.

Excel will automatically create a pie chart for you. You can adjust the size by pushing and pulling on the sides of the chart. You can also edit the appearance of the chart using the menu bar at the top or by double-clicking on different parts of the chart.

Example 1:

Notice that the pie wedges are not a representation of the numbers in the column, but the percentage of the total. Since our list of fruits add up to 50, the wedges are the percentage calculated as the number divided by 50.

Since we have 20 pears, the orange wedge is 20/50=40% of the whole pie chart. We can see this percentage by hovering over a wedge in the chart.

Example 2:

This list of percentages add up to 100%, so our pie chart is an accurate representation of the percentages. If they didn’t add up to 100%, then the wedges of the pie chart would be different than the percentages listed.

Because our list of percentages added up to 100%, the blue wedge that represents that 30% of the population like the color blue is also 30% of the pie chart. We can see this by hovering over the wedge.

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Pie charts are mostly used as it is more appealing and easy to understand for any type of audience. It is divided into various parts and each part of pie charts denotes a subcategory of the original data set. This sub-category data is sometimes shown using the original values or sometimes using percentages as each subcategory represents the proportion of data.

In this article, we are going to see how to show percentages in a pie chart using Excel.

Consider the example shown below :

Example: Consider the data set which consists of information about the number of students enrolled in our courses.

The steps are as follows :

Insert the data set in the form of a table as shown above in the cells of the Excel sheet.
Select the data set and go to the Insert tab at the top of the Excel window.
Now, select Insert Doughnut or Pie chart. A drop-down will appear.
Select a 2-D pie chart from the drop-down. A pie chart will be built.

Select -> Insert -> Doughnut or Pie Chart -> 2-D Pie

Initially, the pie chart will not have any data labels in it. To add data labels, select the chart and then click on the “+” button in the top right corner of the pie chart and check the Data Labels button.

Pie Chart

It can be observed that the pie chart contains the value in the labels but our aim is to show the data labels in terms of percentage.

Show percentage in a pie chart:

The steps are as follows :

Select the pie chart.
Right-click on it. A pop-down menu will appear.
Click on the Format Data Labels option.

The Format Data Labels dialog box will appear.
In this dialog box check the “Percentage” button and uncheck the Value button. This will replace the data labels in pie chart from values to percentage.

The final pie chart with percentages in the data labels is now ready.

This article is talking about how to show or display the percentage value in pie chart in Excel.

Show percentage in pie chart in Excel
More tutorial for charts…

Show percentage in pie chart in Excel

Please do as follows to create a pie chart and show percentage in the pie slices.

1. Select the data you will create a pie chart based on, click Insert > Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart > Pie. See screenshot:

2. Then a pie chart is created. Right click the pie chart and select Add Data Labels from the context menu.

3. Now the corresponding values are displayed in the pie slices. Right click the pie chart again and select Format Data Labels from the right-clicking menu.

4. In the opening Format Data Labels pane, check the Percentage box and uncheck the Value box in the Label Options section. Then the percentages are shown in the pie chart as below screenshot shown.

Tips: If you check both the Value and Percentage boxes, the value and the percentage will be displayed in the pie chart. See screenshot:

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