Pie Charts Blog Post

 Pie Charts Visualizations 

A pie chart is a graph, in a circular shape, that is divided into slices. Each slice in the pie graph represents parts of a whole. Typically, pie chart slices are split into categories of a certain topic.  The sizes of a slice in a pie graph represent the proportion or percentage of the whole, contributing to the total. 

Above is an example of a pie chart representing a dataset on a survey on favorite ice cream flavors. Each slice represents a proportion of people's vote on their favorite flavor, between Chocolate, Strawberry & Vanilla. The total number of people participating in the survey is 100. If you look at the chart, you can indicate that out of 100 people, 45% people voted for Vanilla, 30% voted for Chocolate & 25% voted for Strawberry. 

Just by viewing the sizes of the slices, you can indicate that the greatest would be the Vanilla voters, representing nearly half of the total, and the Strawberry voters being the smallest, representing a quarter of the total. The total being 100, all three percentages add up to the total. 

Pie charts are most effective when using a small number of categories. The suggested number would be 5 categories or fewer. Using the comparison of three slices makes it clear and easy to understand. Pie charts are simple and clear to give viewers and readers a quick visual summary of data, turning numerical data into a visual form.