How to Make a Circle Chart in Excel

Creating a circle chart in Excel is one of the quickest ways to show how individual parts make up a whole. Whether you're breaking down a budget, analyzing sales by category, or visualizing survey responses, these charts turn lists of numbers into a simple, easy-to-understand graphic. This article will walk you through exactly how to create and customize circle charts in Excel, so you can clearly communicate your data.

What Exactly is a Circle Chart in Excel?

When people refer to "circle charts" in Excel, they're typically talking about one of two chart types: the Pie Chart or the Doughnut Chart. Both are used to display data as proportions or percentages of a total amount.

• Pie Charts: This is the classic circle chart. The entire pie represents 100% of your data, and each "slice" represents a specific category's portion of that total. It's simple, universally understood, and effective for showing a basic breakdown.

• Doughnut Charts: A doughnut chart is essentially a pie chart with the center cut out. This "hole" isn't just for looks, it gives the chart a lighter, more modern feel and provides a great spot to add a key metric, like the total value or a headline. You can also stack multiple data series into concentric rings, something you can't do with a standard pie chart.

When to Use a Circle Chart (and When to Pass)

Circle charts are perfect for illustrating part-to-whole relationships. They excel when you want to show composition and proportions in a single view.

Use them for things like:

• Budget Allocation: Showing the percentage of a budget spent on different channels (e.g., Marketing, Sales, R&D).

• Sales Contribution: Visualizing which products or regions contribute the most to total revenue.

• Market Share: Comparing your market share against a handful of competitors.

• Survey Results: Displaying the percentage of respondents who chose each possible answer.

However, they have limitations. Circle charts become hard to read if you have too many categories. As a general rule, try to stick to six categories or fewer. When slices get too thin, it’s nearly impossible to compare their sizes effectively. If you have lots of categories, a simple bar or column chart is usually a better choice.

How to Prepare Your Data

Before you can make your chart, you need to set up your data correctly in your Excel sheet. The structure is simple: you need two columns.

• Column 1: Categories. This column lists the names of the slices in your chart. For example, "Google Ads," "Facebook Ads," or "Product A."

• Column 2: Values. This column contains the numeric data corresponding to each category. This could be dollars, unit sales, or the number of responses.

Here’s a clear example of data ready for a circle chart, showing a hypothetical marketing team's ad spend for the third quarter:

Organize your data in a clean table like this, with headers describing what's in each column:

Your values don’t need to add up to 100 or any specific number. Excel will automatically calculate the percentage for each category based on the total sum of the values you provide.

Step-by-Step Guide: Creating a Doughnut Chart in Excel

For this tutorial, we’ll create a doughnut chart, as it offers a bit more flexibility and a cleaner design. The steps for making a pie chart are nearly identical - you’ll just select "Pie" instead of "Doughnut" in the menu.

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click and drag your cursor to highlight the entire data range you prepared, including both the category names and their corresponding values. Make sure you also include the headers ("Channel" and "Ad Spend"). This helps Excel automatically label your chart.

Step 2: Insert the Chart

With your data selected, navigate to the Insert tab on the Excel ribbon at the top of the screen. Look for the Charts section. Click on the icon that looks like a pie chart (its official name is "Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart"). A dropdown menu will appear. From here, click on the Doughnut chart option.

Step 3: Voilà! You Have a Chart

Excel will instantly generate a basic doughnut chart and place it on your worksheet. It will assign default colors to each segment and generate a legend based on your category names. The chart is functional, but a few quick customizations can make it much more professional and easier to understand.

Customizing Your Excel Circle Chart for Impact

A default chart gets the job done, but taking a few minutes to format it can make a huge difference in clarity and visual appeal. Here’s how to fine-tune your new chart.

1. Add a Descriptive Title

The generic "Chart Title" doesn't tell your audience anything useful. Double-click on it and replace it with a clear, descriptive title. Something like "Q3 Marketing Ad Spend by Channel" gives immediate context.

2. Add and Format Data Labels

The legend is helpful, but displaying data directly on the chart is often much clearer. This allows readers to see the numbers without looking back and forth between the chart and the legend.

• Click on your chart to select it. A small plus icon (+) will appear in the top-right corner.

• Click the plus sign to open the Chart Elements menu.

• Check the box next to Data Labels. Numbers will now appear on each segment of the doughnut.

To customize these labels further:

• Click the small arrow next to Data Labels in the Chart Elements menu and select More Options….

• A Format Data Labels pane will open on the right side of your screen. Under Label Options, you can choose what to display. Checking "Category Name" and "Percentage" is often the most effective combination. You can uncheck "Value" to avoid clutter.

• After adding category names to the labels, you can often delete the legend to free up space. Just click on the legend and press the Delete key.

3. Adjust the Colors

Excel’s default color palette might not match your company’s branding or your presentation's theme. To change the colors:

• For quick changes: Click on the chart, go to the Chart Design tab on the ribbon, and click Change Colors. You can choose from a variety of professionally designed color palettes.

• For manual control: Right-click on a single slice of the doughnut chart you want to change (make sure only that one slice is selected). In the menu that appears, click the paint bucket icon (Fill) and choose your desired color. Repeat this for each slice to create a custom color scheme.

4. Tweak the Doughnut Hole Size

You can change the size of the center hole in your doughnut chart. A larger hole can create a lighter visual and provide more room for a central annotation.

• Right-click on any part of the doughnut ring itself and select Format Data Series….

• In the formatting sidebar that opens, you’ll find a slider for Doughnut Hole Size. Drag it left or right to decrease or increase the size of the hole.

5. Add Context in the Center

The empty space in the middle of a doughnut chart is prime real estate. Use it to display the total value or an important takeaway. This isn't a built-in feature, but it's easy to add with a text box.

• Go to the Insert tab and click on Text Box.

• Click and drag to draw a text box in the middle of your chart.

• Type your text into the box (e.g., "Total Spend: $19,200").

• Use the Home tab to format the font, size, and alignment just like any other text to make it stand out.

Final Thoughts

Creating circle charts in Excel is a straightforward process that makes proportional data easy to digest. By using doughnut charts and applying a few simple formatting tricks like adding clear data labels and strategically using the center space, you can transform a basic Excel sheet into a compelling and professional data visualization.

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