Compare and rank
Horizontal bar chart
Compares category values using bar lengths measured from a shared baseline.
- Chart
- Comparison
- Ranking
What it answers
Which categories have the largest values?
- Shape
- Horizontal rectangles
- What it shows
- Magnitude differences and rank.
Example: Raket Parts B.V.
The question
Which customer group brings Raket Parts the most revenue?
Raket Parts revenue by customer group, 2025
Raket Parts B.V. is a fictional company created for Insyt.
The misleading version
Same question, drawn badly
Axis starting at 5% exaggerates the gaps
What goes wrong. The axis starts at 5%. Skye Ascent Ltd's bar is 18 times the length of the industrial bar, but its share is only about 6 times larger. Bars must start at zero.
When to use it
Use it when
Comparing a few or many named categories, especially with long labels.
Avoid it when
When the main question concerns a continuous relationship between two numbers.
How to read it
Read category labels, then compare bar endpoints on the shared horizontal scale.
Note
Use a zero baseline.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Category: text; Value: number
- One row is
- One category and its measured or aggregated value. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Choose an aggregation for repeated categories. Keep units consistent.
- Optional
- Optional Series or label. Wide alternative: one category column plus one value column per series.
- Preparation
- Validate the input grain and missing values. Choose an aggregation for repeated categories. Keep units consistent.
- Units
- Use the measured variable's stated unit consistently. No denominator is implied unless the value is a rate or proportion.
Worked example
Data A=30, B=45, C=25. Draw horizontal bars from zero. B is largest and exceeds A by 15 units.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| A | 30 |
| B | 45 |
| C | 25 |