A donut chart is a pie chart with the middle cut out. That small change starts a surprising number of arguments: some people find the donut cleaner and more modern, others say it throws away the part of the pie that made it readable. This guide shows what actually changes when you add the hole, what a donut chart does well, how to read one, and the cases where neither a donut nor a pie is the right chart and a bar chart should take over.
What Is a Donut Chart?
According to Wikipedia, a doughnut chart, also spelled donut, is a variant of the pie chart with a blank center, which leaves room for additional information about the data as a whole. Its aim is the same as a pie chart’s: to show proportions. Each category gets a piece of the ring, and the size of the piece matches the category’s share of the total.
You will see both spellings. Excel’s menu uses the long one: Microsoft’s help page gives the command as Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart. This guide says donut chart throughout.
The Same Data, Two Ways
Here are 300 tickets sold for a school play, first as a pie chart.
Tickets for a school play as a pie chart. Adult tickets are 120 of 300, which is 40 percent. Sample data.
Show the data
| Slice | Value |
|---|---|
| Adult | 120 |
| Student | 90 |
| Child | 60 |
| Senior | 30 |
And here is the same table as a donut chart.
The same tickets as a donut chart. The slices cover the same angles as in the pie, and the hole holds the total. Sample data.
Show the data
| Slice | Value |
|---|---|
| Adult | 120 |
| Student | 90 |
| Child | 60 |
| Senior | 30 |
The percentages did not move: 40, 30, 20 and 10. A donut is drawn from exactly the same arithmetic as a pie. If you want that arithmetic, from values to percentages to degrees, it is in our guide to the circle graph.
Donut Chart vs Pie Chart: What Actually Changes
Three things change when you cut the hole.
Wedges Become Arcs
In a pie, every slice is a wedge that runs to the center point. You can judge a slice three ways: by the angle at its point, by its area, and by the length of its outer edge. In a donut the point is gone. What is left is an arc, a curved band, and you judge it mostly by how far it travels around the ring.
Does that make a donut harder or easier to read? We did not find a study we could open that measures it, so we will not claim either. What we can say is that both charts ask the reader to judge angles, areas or arc lengths, and that is the real limit they share, covered below.
The Center Becomes Usable Space
This is the donut’s one clear gain. The hole is empty, so you can put a number there: the total, or the value that matters most. The pie has no such spot. On the donut above, “300 tickets” sits where the pie has only the meeting point of four wedges.
The Chart Gets Lighter
A donut uses less ink than a pie of the same size, so it looks less heavy next to text or other charts. That is a matter of taste, not of accuracy. It suits a dashboard, where several small charts share a screen.
What a Donut Chart Does Well
A Total in the Middle
Parts of a whole mean more when you know how big the whole is. Forty percent of 300 tickets is a different story from forty percent of 30,000. The center of a donut is the natural place to say so.
One Share as a Progress Ring
A donut with only two slices makes a good progress indicator: how much is done and how much is left.
A two-slice donut as a progress ring: $6,500 raised of a $10,000 goal, which is 65 percent. The remaining part is gray so the eye goes to the part that is done. Sample data.
Show the data
| Slice | Value |
|---|---|
| Raised | 6500 |
| Still to go | 3500 |
This works for the reason Wikipedia’s article gives for pie charts in general: comparing one slice with the whole is the task these charts handle best, especially when the share is near 25 or 50 percent. Claus Wilke’s textbook Fundamentals of Data Visualization makes a similar point, that pie charts work well when the goal is to emphasize simple fractions such as one half, one third or one quarter.
A Small Number of Parts
Like a pie, a donut is at its best with a handful of slices that differ clearly in size. The ticket chart has four. Each is easy to find, and the order from largest to smallest is obvious.
How to Read a Donut Chart
- Read the title and the center. The center often holds the total or the key figure. If it holds a percentage, find out which slice it belongs to.
- Match each arc to its label. Use the labels on the ring or the legend next to it.
- Judge each arc against easy fractions. A quarter of the ring is 25 percent, half is 50 percent, three quarters is 75 percent. Our tool starts the first slice at the top, at 12 o’clock, and goes clockwise, so the top is the place to start reading.
- Read exact values from the labels, not from the picture. If the chart has no labels and the arcs are close in size, do not trust your eye for the order.
- Check what the whole is. The arcs must add up to something that makes sense as one total.
A Quick Reading Exercise
Use the ticket donut above.
- Which ticket type sold the most? Adult, with 40 percent of the ring.
- What share were student and child tickets together? 30 plus 20 is 50 percent, which is half the ring.
- How many senior tickets were sold? 10 percent of 300 is 30.
Hole Size: Thick Ring or Thin Ring
The size of the hole is the one design choice a donut adds. Our tool lets you set it from 25 to 80 percent of the chart’s radius.
The ticket data with the smallest hole, 25 percent. It reads almost like a pie, and the center is too small for more than a word. Sample data.
Show the data
| Slice | Value |
|---|---|
| Adult | 120 |
| Student | 90 |
| Child | 60 |
| Senior | 30 |
The same data with the largest hole, 80 percent. There is plenty of room for the total, but the ring is thin, so we moved the percentages to the legend. Sample data.
Show the data
| Slice | Value |
|---|---|
| Adult | 120 |
| Student | 90 |
| Child | 60 |
| Senior | 30 |
We found no published rule for the best hole size, so here is ours, offered as advice: around half, as in the first donut in this guide. That keeps the arcs thick enough to carry a label and the center wide enough for a short number. Go thinner only when the number in the middle is the main message, as in the progress ring.
Where Donut and Pie Charts Both Struggle
Cutting a hole does not fix any of a pie chart’s known weaknesses. Three matter most.
Many Slices
Eight slices in one donut. Try to rank the four smallest countries without the numbers. Sample data.
Show the data
| Slice | Value |
|---|---|
| United States | 24 |
| United Kingdom | 17 |
| Germany | 14 |
| India | 13 |
| Canada | 11 |
| France | 9 |
| Brazil | 7 |
| Japan | 5 |
Wikipedia notes that in a pie chart with many sections, several values may end up with the same or similar colors, which makes the chart hard to interpret. Microsoft’s Excel help puts a number on it: pie charts work best with no more than seven categories, because more slices make a chart hard to read. That is Microsoft’s advice, not a research finding, but it is a sensible ceiling for a donut too.
Slices of Similar Size
Stephen Few, in his 2007 essay Save the Pies for Dessert, argues that pie charts encode values as areas and angles, and that our eyes compare those far less well than positions and lengths. Wilke’s textbook shows the effect with five made-up companies that each hold about 20 percent of a market: drawn as pie charts, he writes, it is difficult to see what exactly is going on. In the donut above, Germany at 14 and India at 13 are in the same position.
Comparing Two Charts
Put two donuts side by side, for two years or two regions, and the reader has to compare an arc in one ring with an arc in another. Wikipedia’s article lists comparing data across different pie charts as one of the things research has found difficult. In Wilke’s five-company example, side-by-side bars are the form he calls the best choice.
When to Choose a Bar Chart Instead
Here are the same eight countries as a bar chart.
The eight values as horizontal bars, sorted from largest to smallest. The order is clear, and neighbors such as Germany and India are easy to compare. Sample data.
Show the data
| Category | Visits |
|---|---|
| United States | 24 |
| United Kingdom | 17 |
| Germany | 14 |
| India | 13 |
| Canada | 11 |
| France | 9 |
| Brazil | 7 |
| Japan | 5 |
Every bar starts from the same line, so you compare lengths, the task Few says our eyes are good at. Wilke sums up the trade-offs in a table of pros and cons. In it, pie charts show clearly that the data are parts of a whole and emphasize simple fractions, but do not allow easy comparison of the parts and do not work well when the whole is broken into many pieces. Side-by-side bars are the reverse: easy comparison, many pieces, but no picture of the whole.
A short way to decide:
| Your situation | Better choice |
|---|---|
| Two to five parts, one clearly the biggest | Pie or donut |
| You want the total or one key number shown with the parts | Donut |
| One share of a whole, such as progress toward a goal | Donut with two slices |
| Six or more parts, or parts of similar size | Bar chart |
| The same parts for several years or groups | Bar chart, grouped or stacked |
| The exact order of the parts matters | Bar chart, sorted |
The first three rows follow from the sources above. The numbers in the first and fourth rows are our own rule of thumb.
For the bar versions, see our bar graph examples, or build one in the bar graph tool. For the same parts across several groups, our guide to the stacked bar chart covers the options.
Common Donut Chart Mistakes
These are the problems we see most often. The list is our own, from building the examples in this guide.
Parts That Do Not Make a Whole
A donut only makes sense when the slices add up to one total that means something. Tickets by type add up to all tickets sold. Average scores in four subjects do not add up to anything, so they belong in a bar chart. A quick test: say the sum out loud. If “the total of these is…” has no sensible ending, do not draw a ring.
A Center Number That Belongs to Nothing
The number in the hole should be the total of the ring or the value of one clearly marked slice. A center that says “65%” next to four unlabeled arcs leaves the reader guessing which arc it describes. In a progress ring this is easy: there is one colored arc, and the number is its share.
Labels the Reader Has to Hunt For
An arc is thinner than a pie slice, so a label inside it has less room. With a thick ring, percentages fit on the arcs. With a thin ring, move the numbers to the legend, as the 80 percent example above does. Avoid a legend with eight look-alike colors far from the chart. If you need that many entries, you need bars.
Two Rings Side by Side
Two donuts for two years look tidy, but the reader has to carry an arc length from one ring to the other in their head. Put the two years in a grouped bar chart, where the two bars for each category stand next to each other.
Build a Donut Chart From Your Own Numbers
Our pie chart tool draws both forms from the same table, so you can switch between them and see which one reads better for your data.
- Type your labels and values, one row per part, or paste two columns from a spreadsheet.
- Tick “Donut chart (hole in the middle)”. Untick it to go back to a pie.
- Set the “Hole size” slider, from 25 to 80 percent of the radius.
- Fill in “Text in the middle” with the total or your key figure. The tool does not add up the total for you, so type it yourself.
- Choose “Labels on slices”: the percentage, the value, the label with its percentage, or none.
Rows with a value of zero or less are left out, with a note that says which. That matches Microsoft’s advice that a pie chart should have no values of zero or less.
Open a starter donut chart with four slices
If you would rather start from a finished design, the gallery on the tool page includes a donut chart template, a project cost breakdown with the total in the middle.
Donut and pie charts are two of many chart types. Our overview of the types of graphs and charts shows where each one fits.
Summary
A donut chart is a pie chart with a hole. The slices, percentages and angles are the same. The hole buys you a place for the total or a headline number, and a lighter look. It does not fix what pies do badly: many slices, similar slices and comparisons between charts. Use a donut for a few clear parts with a number worth showing in the middle, a two-slice donut for progress, and a bar chart when the reader has to compare the parts with each other.
Questions people ask
What is a donut chart used for?
A donut chart is used to show how one total splits into a few parts, the same job as a pie chart. The hole adds one thing: room for a headline number, such as the total or the share of the main slice. That suits a dashboard tile or a ring that shows progress toward a goal.
What is the difference between a donut chart and a pie chart?
The only difference is the hole. Both charts give each part a share of a circle in proportion to its value. A pie fills the circle to its center, so each slice is a wedge. A donut cuts out the middle, so each slice is an arc, and the empty center can hold a number or a label.
How to read a doughnut chart?
Start with the title and any number in the center, which usually gives the total. Then match each arc to its label or legend entry. Judge each arc by how far it travels around the ring: a quarter turn is 25 percent and a half turn is 50 percent. Read exact values from the labels.
How do I create a donut chart?
List your categories and their values, then draw them as a pie chart and cut out the center. In our pie chart tool that is one checkbox, Donut chart, plus a slider for the hole size and a box for the text in the middle. In Excel the command is Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart.
Is it donut chart or doughnut chart?
Both spellings are in use and mean the same chart. Wikipedia's entry is titled doughnut chart and notes that it is also spelled donut. Microsoft Excel's menu says Doughnut. We write donut because it is the shorter spelling and the one most people type, but neither is wrong.
How big should the hole in a donut chart be?
We could not find a published rule, so this is our own advice. A hole of about half the diameter leaves arcs thick enough to compare and a center wide enough for a short number. Below a third the chart reads as a pie, and above three quarters the ring gets thin and the colors are harder to tell apart.
Is there a free donut chart template?
Yes. The template gallery on our pie chart tool includes a project cost breakdown drawn as a donut with the total in the middle. It opens with sample data filled in, so you replace the labels and amounts and export the chart. The starter donut in this guide works the same way.
