Pie Charts: The Prime Evil
posted by Dave Hoffman
I’ve been busy working on edits for my recent paper, which attempts to present lots of data in relatively clear ways. I’ve gotten some great comments from readers. None more so than this one, in response to a proposed figure providing some descriptive statistics:
Pie charts are bad! They are ugly and provide the reader no visual assistance in comparing categories.
I had no idea if this was a generally accepted view among experts in the visual display of quantitative information. Extensive research suggested that it was:
One of the prevailing orthodoxies of this forum – one to which I whole-heartedly subscribe – is that pie charts are bad and that the only thing worse than one pie chart is lots of them.
The thing I don’t get is why: pie charts seem to be a very common form of data presentation; and folks are accustomed to measuring the area of slices of pie, so the visuals convey important data. What’s wrong with a slice of pie? (And, more importantly, are dot plots really better?)
February 24, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Posted in: Empirical Analysis of Law
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Responses (8)
Greg - February 24, 2007 at 1:33 pm
I don’t know about evil, but, here is the world’s best pie chart.
Howard - February 24, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Well from your extensive research I think this makes it pretty clear. If two slices are similarly sized, it’s harder to see the difference in a pie chart vs a bar chart or table.
Adam - February 24, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Use a bar graph, not a dot chart. It’s easier to compare the hieght of bars than the slices of pie.
KipEsquire - February 24, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Pie charts are bad because they make people hungry for pizza and they are no longer able to concentrate.
John - February 24, 2007 at 7:30 pm
See Edward Tufte.
Homer - February 24, 2007 at 8:12 pm
mmmm, pizza.
Belle Lettre - February 25, 2007 at 5:11 pm
“pie charts bad” has to be my new favorite boolean search term. It sounds like a judgmental baby researcher.
Could be the next article title–although you just can’t beat your own “Best Puffery Article Ever.” You peaked early, dude.
Sohnee - April 6, 2011 at 6:07 am
There is quite a log of discussion on this topic – and the general feeling appears to be that pie charts were a bit of a mistake.
http://www.stevefenton.co.uk/Content/Pie-Charts-Are-Bad/
http://blog.jgc.org/2009/08/please-dont-use-pie-charts.html
http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/08-21-07.pdf (PDF)
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