How to Make a Marimekko Chart in Excel

Creating a Marimekko chart in Excel is a brilliant way to visualize data with multiple layers, but it's not immediately obvious how to do it. This powerful chart, also known as a mosaic plot, uses variable column widths and stacked segments to display the relationship between different categories and their values all at once. This tutorial will walk you through a simple, step-by-step method to build a fully functional Marimekko chart in Excel from scratch.

What is a Marimekko Chart, Exactly?

Think of a Marimekko chart as a supercharged stacked column chart. While a standard stacked column chart has columns of equal width, a Marimekko chart’s columns have different widths. This extra element allows you to represent two different variables simultaneously:

• The width of each column shows its proportion of the first variable. For example, columns could represent different products, with their widths reflecting each product's total market share.

• The height of an individual segment within a column shows its proportion of the second variable. For example, the stacked segments within each product column could represent the sales breakdown by region.

Instantly, you can see both how big each product's overall market share is (the column width) and which regions contribute the most to each product's sales (the segment heights). It’s perfect for market analysis, breaking down sales data, or visualizing survey results where you're comparing multiple categories and sub-categories.

Does Excel Have a Built-In Marimekko Chart?

The short answer is no. Unfortunately, Excel doesn't offer a ready-to-use, one-click Marimekko chart option in its standard chart library. Trying to find it in the "Insert Chart" menu will leave you empty-handed.

But that doesn't mean it can't be done. With a clever workaround, you can build your own by transforming your data and using another chart type - the 100% Stacked Area chart - as a foundation. It takes a few extra steps, but the result is a professional and highly effective visualization you can use in any report or dashboard.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Marimekko Chart in Excel

Let's walk through the exact steps, using a real-world example. Imagine we want to visualize a software company's annual revenue, broken down by Product Line (the primary category) and Sales Region (the secondary category).

Step 1: Set Up Your Raw Data

First, organize your raw data into a simple table. You should have rows for your sub-categories (Sales Regions) and columns for your main categories (Product Lines). For our example, it looks like this:

Raw Data Table:

Step 2: Reorganize and Calculate Helper Data

This is the most critical part of the process. We need to convert this raw data into a new format that the stacked area chart can understand. We'll create a new "helper" table with several calculated columns to define the precise position and size of each segment in our Marimekko chart.

Our goal is to create a table that looks like this, which we'll then use to generate the chart. Below are the step-by-step calculations to get there.

1. Find the Totals

First, calculate the total revenue for each product line and the grand total.

• Total for Product A: $300,000

• Total for Product B: $400,000

• Total for Product C: $200,000

• Grand Total: $900,000

2. Calculate Category Widths (X-Axis)

The width of each column in the Marimekko chart will represent that product line's share of the grand total revenue. Let's calculate these percentages:

• Product A Width: 300,000 / 900,000 = 33.3%

• Product B Width: 400,000 / 900,000 = 44.4%

• Product C Width: 200,000 / 900,000 = 22.2%

3. Calculate Segment Heights (Y-Axis)

Now, calculate what percentage of each product line's total comes from each region. This will define the height of the colored segments within each wider column.

For Product A ($300,000 total):

• North America: 150,000 / 300,000 = 50%

• Europe: 100,000 / 300,000 = 33.3%

• Asia: 50,000 / 300,000 = 16.7%

Do the same for Product B and Product C.

4. Build the Helper Table

Now, create a new table in Excel to lay out the data points needed for the stacked area chart. We need to create x-axis points to mark the beginning and end of each product's column width. Each product line will have a "Start" and "End" data point on the X-axis.

Our main data columns will represent the Regions (North America, Europe, Asia), and the values in those columns will be the percentages we just calculated (the segment heights).

The structure should be:

How to build this table:

• X-Axis Column: This is a cumulative running total of the widths. It starts at 0%. Product A ends at 33.3%. Product B starts at 33.3% (Product A’s end) and ends at 77.8% (33.3% + 44.4%). Product C starts at 77.8% and ends at 100%.

• Region Columns: For each product's "Start" and "End" row, copy the segment height percentages you calculated. For example, Product A's "Start" and "End" rows both get 50%, 33.3%, and 16.7% for the respective regions.

• Anchor Point: The "Start" row at the top with 0% for everything is crucial to anchor the chart at the origin.

Step 3: Insert a 100% Stacked Area Chart

Now the easy part! Highlight your helper data, including the headers. Make sure to only select from the "X-Axis" column to the last region column (columns B through E in our helper table).

1. Go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon.

2. In the Charts group, click the Area Chart icon.

3. Select the 100% Stacked Area chart.

Excel will produce a chart. It will not look like a Marimekko chart yet, but you'll see colored areas corresponding to your data. Don't worry - we're about to fix that.

Step 4: Format Your Chart

Now we just need to make some tweaks to convert this area chart into a clean Marimekko.

1. Select Data Source to Define Axes

• Right-click on the chart and choose Select Data.

• In the pop-up window, you'll see "Legend Entries (Series)" on the left and "Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels" on the right.

• Under "Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels", click Edit.

• Select the values in your "X-Axis" column from your helper table (excluding the header). Click OK. The chart shape should dramatically change into vertical blocks.

2. Format the Vertical (Y) and Horizontal (X) Axes

• Right-click on the vertical (Y) axis on your chart and select Format Axis.

• Set the Minimum Bound to 0 and the Maximum Bound to 1. This scales the axes to display percentages from 0% to 100%.

• Repeat for the horizontal (X) axis: right-click, Format Axis, bounds from 0 to 1.

3. Add Data Labels

• To label the column widths, manually insert text boxes below the X-axis, e.g., "Product A (33%)", "Product B (44%)", "Product C (22%)".

• For segment labels, click inside each colored block and add a text box with the percentage (e.g., "50%"). Right-click and choose to add data labels if needed, but adjust positioning for clarity.

4. Final Cleanup

• Title: Add a descriptive title like "Annual Revenue by Product Line and Region."

• Legend: Verify that the legend clearly shows which color corresponds to which region.

• Gridlines: Remove vertical gridlines for a cleaner, mosaic-like appearance by right-clicking and deleting them.

Following these steps, you will have a clear, insightful Marimekko chart demonstrating your multi-dimensional data.

Final Thoughts

While Excel doesn't provide a direct way to build a Marimekko chart, this method using a stacked area chart gives you full control and a professional result. It’s an essential technique for visualizing "whole-to-part" relationships across multiple categories in reports or presentations.

Manual data preparation can be time-consuming, but tools like Graphed can automate this process. Instead of building helper tables, you can connect your data sources directly and generate interactive visualizations instantaneously, based on natural language descriptions.