Presenting gender statistics

 

TYPES OF CHARTS - PIE CHARTS

 

Pie charts can only be used to represent shares of 100 per cent and are only legible when there are few segments. Common errors are: to present too many segments resulting in very narrow 'slices'; and the use of small labels that are hard to read and difficult to interpret. Generally, there should be no more than 6 segments. For more than 6 segments, a bar chart (preferably a horizontal one) is more effective. Also, pie charts should not be used when comparing distributions for several groups as two or more 'pies' are not as easily comparable as two bar charts. For the sake of legibility, three-dimensional pie charts should be avoided.