Compare and rank

Packed bubble chart

Compares values by circle area in a compact layout without meaningful XY positions.

Chart
Magnitude
Comparison

What it answers

Which items have the greatest magnitude?

Shape: Tightly packed circles
What it shows: Large and small categories.

Example

The question

Which customers bring in the most revenue?

Revenue by customer, top 14 customers (packed bubbles, EUR thousand)

Bubble area shows revenue; position has no meaning. Nordia 820; Alma 610; Brio 540; Kvadrat 420; Lumo 350; Fjord 300; Sola 260; Vinter 210; Hav 180; Ekan 150; Myr 120; Tind 90; Rask 70; Ny 50.

Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.

When to use it

Use it when

A visual magnitude overview of a modest category set.

Avoid it when

Precise ranking or interpreting distance as association.

How to read it

Compare circle areas and read value labels; positions are only packing.

Note

Different from an XY bubble chart or a bubble map.

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.

A long table: one row per observation, few columns. New data adds rows.

Worked example

A30, B45, C25 become area-scaled circles. B is largest; its centre position does not encode an X or Y measurement.

Category	Value
A	30
B	45
C	25

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