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Stacked Bar Charts


Stacked bar charts are used to compare categorical data.
The bars’ lengths are a good visual indicator for comparison. The chart below illustrates the comparison between various categorical data such as, varying professions, and men vs. women. The data on the x-axis represents the professions, and the data on the y-axis displays the percentage of women vs. men in each particular profession.

Good to know

Pros:

  • Stacked bar charts, similar to the stacked column charts, work great together with categorical data.
  • Stacked bar charts are an excellent choice for restricted screens such as phones and tablets, as you can fit a lot of data vertically and users can scroll up and down to get insights.

Cons:

  • Typically stacked bar charts are restricted to categorical data only (not versatile chart type).

Remark

Be aware that stack charts share solely the percentage of the elements, and not the real numbers. Shown on the chart above, the audience doesn't know if the number of nurses is more significant, equal, or smaller than the number of accountants; all the audience can gather from the chart is that there are 9% men and 91% women as nurses, and 21% men compared to 79% women as accountants. To inform the audience, you can either add more details in the tooltip or add another chart for more information such as a bar chart below.

Accessibility

The stacked bar chart can be easily adapted to suit the color-blind community (see below), by using a pattern fill chart or a monochrome chart.

Information

Learn more about how to create a stacked bar chart.