Part of a whole
Pie-of-pie chart
Breaks a combined main-pie slice into categories in a secondary pie.
- Chart
- Composition
- Detail emphasis
What it answers
What are the small components inside one combined slice?
- Shape
- Main pie linked to a second pie
- What it shows
- Composition of an otherwise hidden remainder.
Example
The question
How big is the “other” slice, and what is inside it?
Complaints by cause, with the small causes broken out
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Explaining a small remainder while retaining whole context.
Avoid it when
When two different percentage denominators are unclear.
How to read it
Read the main pie first, then follow the combined slice to its breakdown.
Note
The second pie details a slice rather than adding a new total.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Category: text; Value: nonnegative number
- One row is
- One component of a defined whole. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Use mutually meaningful components and a positive total. Values may be counts or shares. Check rounded percentages.
- Optional
- Series or Parent for multiple wholes. Do not mix totals with their components.
- Preparation
- Choose categories to combine as Other, calculate its overall share and keep the selected categories for the secondary pie.
- Units
- Main slices use the full total; secondary pie percentages use the combinedOther total unless explicitly labelled otherwise.
Worked example
Main A70, Other 30; Other contains B20, C10. The second pie shows B=66.7% of Other, but B remains 20% of the original whole.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| A | 32 |
| B | 40 |
| C | 28 |