If you have a small dataset, a pie chart is one of the best ways to show it. How can we insert a pie chart?
Let’s start with a single cell, then go to the Insert tab, then 2D Pie command. And there we have it (Fig. 1).
We have to remember that a pie chart will include the whole text before numbers, which, in our case are cities and countries. (Fig. 2).
We don’t want to see countries because there will be too many names. Let’s delete our chart and select proper ranges, i.e. the City and the Number of residents columns. Then, select the Insert tab, and 2D Pie command (Fig. 3).
The best part of pie charts are Data Labels. I personally like the Data Callout option best. We have the category name and percentage there (Fig. 4).
If you have different kind of data, you can change the content of data labels. We just have to click once on the pie chart and press Ctrl + 1 keyboard combination. We will see a table called Format Data Labels on the right, where we can select and deselect what we wan to see in the labels (Fig. 5).
Sometimes, we have to sort our data from largest to smallest or from smallest to largest (Fig. 6).
Remember that a pie chart is recommended when you don’t have much information to show. An optimal number is around five pieces of information. In case you have more, a pie chart will be less readable.