Percent stacked bars are a good way to compare common elements amongst different categories. They are also a good way to measure performance across sectors or across different years. Contrary to the normal stacked bar chart, percent stacked bar charts are displayed on a 100% base, meaning that all the bars in the chart have the same length. This is what makes comparisons more straightforward.
Follow these steps to make your own percent bar stacked chart:
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Go to the Line, Bar, Pie section on the template chooser and select the Bar chart (proportional) starting point. This contains the basic structure of any percent stacked bar chart.
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- In the Data tab, upload or paste your dataset. Percent stacked bar charts need wide format data, meaning that a new column determines each segment of the bar. Make sure that the data matches this structure.
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The basic column bindings for this chart are a column for the labels of each bar (can be a year or a name) and a range of columns for the segments of each bars and the values.
- Remember that for the Values column binding, you can select multiple columns at the same time by separating the column IDs with commas (
B, D, F) or by using a hyphen to select a range of columns (B-D). - The figures in the data can be regular numbers or percentages as the template will calculate and split the bars proportionally on its own, meaning you don't have to worry about doing this.
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WARNING: If your values are in percentages, make sure that each bar stacks up to 100%, otherwise you'll have incomplete bars.
NOTE: If your legend is clickable and can be used as a filter, the values of each segment will change with every new selection. To prevent this behavior, head to the Legend > Click legend to filter data settings, and turn this option off.
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In the Preview tab you can customize your chart further. For example, you can display the value of each segment by going to the Labels settings > Data point labels and toggling the Show labels on data points on. Then you can select what information you want to display on each segment.
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TIP: If your values are in percentages, you can add a percent sign as a suffix to the labels and pop ups. Learn how to do it here.
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- That's it! Your percent stacked bar is ready to go. Customize your chart further by adding color overrides, turning it into a grid of charts, and many other options.