How to Create a Donut Chart in Excel

A pie chart is great for showing parts of a whole, but sometimes you need a little more. A donut chart does everything a pie chart can, plus it provides a clean space in the middle for a key takeaway and the ability to visualize multiple data series at once. In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through creating, customizing, and enhancing your donut charts in Excel.

What is a Donut Chart and When Should You Use It?

A donut chart is essentially a pie chart with the center cut out. That simple difference, however, unlocks a couple of powerful data visualization advantages. It gets its name from its resemblance to a donut, displaying data in rings where the size of each slice is proportional to the value it represents.

You should consider using a donut chart when you want to:

• Show Proportions: Just like a pie chart, its primary job is to illustrate how individual parts contribute to a total amount. This is perfect for showing budget allocations, market share, or survey responses.

• Display Multiple Data Series: This is a key advantage over a pie chart. You can nest multiple rings to compare different data sets within the same chart, like comparing sales performance for the same set of products across two different years.

• Highlight a Key Metric: The empty space in the middle - the "donut hole" - is prime real estate. You can use it to display a crucial piece of information, like the total value of all the slices, a grand total, or the main KPI you're tracking.

As a best practice, donut charts work best with a limited number of categories (ideally under seven) to avoid becoming cluttered and hard to read.

Step-by-Step: Creating Your First Donut Chart in Excel

Let's build a simple donut chart from scratch. For this example, we'll visualize quarterly sales figures for a fictional company.

Step 1: Prepare Your Data

First, you need to set up your data in a clean, simple format. The best structure is two columns: one for your categories (the labels for your slices) and one for their corresponding values.

Open a new Excel sheet and input the following data:

Your data should be organized in a table-like structure with clear headers. This makes it easy for Excel to understand what you want to chart.

Step 2: Select Your Data

Click and drag your mouse to highlight the entire data range you just entered, including the headers ("Category" and "Sales"). Selecting the headers tells Excel to use them as the chart title and legend labels automatically.

Step 3: Insert the Donut Chart

With your data selected, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Insert tab on the Excel ribbon.

2. In the Charts group, click on the icon that looks like a pie chart. It's officially called "Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart."

3. A dropdown menu will appear. In the "Doughnut" section, click the first option.

Excel will instantly generate and place a basic donut chart onto your worksheet.

Customizing Your Donut Chart for Clarity and Impact

The default chart is a great start, but a little customization can make your data story much clearer and more professional. Here’s how to fine-tune your new donut chart.

Add a Clear Chart Title

The default title is probably "Sales." That's okay, but we can do better. Click directly on the chart title text box. Delete the existing text and type in something more descriptive, like "Total Sales by Quarter."

Add Data Labels for Readability

Right now, your audience has to look back and forth between the chart colors and the legend to understand what each slice represents. Let's put the data right on the chart.

1. Right-click on any of the donut slices.

2. From the context menu, select Add Data Labels. You'll see the raw sales values appear on each slice.

To make these labels even more useful, let's change them to percentages.

1. Right-click on one of the newly added data labels.

2. Select Format Data Labels. A new panel will open on the right side of your screen.

3. Under "Label Options," check the box for Percentage and uncheck the box for Value.

4. You can also add the Category Name here to get rid of the legend entirely, which simplifies your chart.

Adjust the Donut Hole Size

The size of the center hole can change the visual focus of your chart. A larger hole puts more emphasis on the arc length of each slice, while a smaller one feels more like a traditional pie chart.

1. Right-click any of the donut slices and select Format Data Series.

2. The formatting panel on the right will switch to the Data Series options.

3. Look for the slider labeled Doughnut Hole Size. The default is typically 75%.

4. Drag the slider to the left to make the hole smaller or to the right to make it larger. A size between 50% and 75% usually works well.

Use the Donut Hole for Key Information

That empty space in the middle is perfect for showcasing your most important number. Let's add the total sales amount there.

1. Go to the Insert tab.

2. In the "Text" group, click Text Box.

3. Click and drag to draw a text box in the center of your donut chart.

4. Type in a key metric, like "Total Sales: $276,000."

5. Use the Home tab to format the text — make it larger, bold, or change the color to match your chart.

This technique turns your chart from a simple graphic into a dashboard-like visualization with a clear focal point.

Adjusting Colors and Styles

Excel’s default color palette is fine, but you might want to match your company's branding or simply use colors that are easier to distinguish.

• Quick Styles: Click on your chart to activate the Chart Design tab. From here, you can browse various pre-designed styles and color palettes.

• Individual Slice Color: To change a specific slice, first click once on the donut to select all slices. Then, click a second time on just the slice you want to change. Right-click it, select Fill, and choose your new color.

Advanced Technique: Visualizing Multiple Data Series

One of the donut chart's best features is its ability to display multiple series of data as concentric rings. This is ideal for comparing two related sets of data, such as sales figures from two different years.

Step 1: Set Up Your Data

Arrange your data with a shared category column and separate value columns for each series. Let's compare 2023 sales to 2024 sales for the same product line.

Step 2: Insert the Multi-Series Chart

The process is the same as before. Highlight your entire data range (A1:C5 in this example) and go to Insert > Pie or Doughnut Chart > Doughnut. Excel will automatically recognize the multiple data series and create a chart with two rings. The inner ring will represent "2023 Sales" and the outer ring "2024 Sales."

This layered chart provides an instant visual comparison, showing you how each product's contribution to the total has changed year-over-year.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Donut charts are effective, but they can be misused. Keep these simple rules in mind to ensure your chart is always clear and accurate.

• Avoid Overcrowding: A donut chart with more than seven slices looks cluttered and becomes difficult to read. The slices become too thin to compare effectively. If you have many categories, a bar chart is a much better choice.

• Don't Distort the Data: Make sure the values you are visualizing actually represent parts of a whole that add up to 100%. Don't use a donut chart to compare unrelated categories with different totals.

• Ensure Zeroes Are Handled Correctly: By default, categories with a value of zero will still get a label and a spot on the legend. This can be confusing. It's often better to filter out zero-value categories from your source data before creating the chart.

Final Thoughts

You've now learned how to create a basic donut chart in Excel, customize it with labels and styling for maximum impact, and even build an advanced multi-series chart for comparative analysis. It is a visually appealing and versatile tool for presenting proportional data when used correctly.

While creating charts in Excel is a fundamental skill, the process can become tedious — especially when you’re pulling data from various platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify, or your CRM and constantly need to update your reports. We built Graphed to eliminate that friction. With our tool, you connect your data sources once, then use natural language to request charts. Just ask something like, "Create a donut chart of my Shopify sales by product for the last 30 days," and we'll instantly generate a real-time, interactive dashboard that updates automatically, helping your team make better decisions with current data.