A Comprehensive Guide to the Donut Chart

What is a Donut Chart?

A donut chart is a form of pie chart that has the center hollowed-out, making the chart look like a donut. 

When to use a Donut Chart?

Donut charts are used to visualize compositions or portions of a whole. Some examples where a donut chart could be useful are the following:

• Comparing traffic to your ecommerce site coming from different marketing channels
• Identifying sources of your revenue
• Deciding budget allocations

These can similarly be done using pie charts. However, pie charts are often discouraged because they are often misinterpreted. Donut charts are better than pie charts for these two main reasons::

• Makes it easier to compare sizes
• Extra space in the center can be used to display more data

How to create a donut chart in Google Sheets

Step 1: Select the range of data that you want to visualize. 

Step 2: Click Insert in the main menu.

Step 3: Click the Chart option. 

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Step 4: In the Chart editor sidebar on the right side, click the drop-down box below Chart Type.

The selected chart type is not a donut chart by default, so we have to change the chart type.

Step 5: Click the drop-down box below the Chart Type.

Step: 6 From the list of possible chart types, select the Donut Chart option.

Voila!  We now have a doughnut chart. Now that you know how to create a donut chart in Google Sheets, you can customize it how you like. 

To add a title to the chart, go to the Customize tab in the Chart editor, then click Chart axis & titles. Make sure that the drop-down box displays the option Chart title. On the text box below the drop-down box, type the title of the chart. 

Here are some more options for modifying the title of the chart: 

• To change the font of the title, click the drop-down box below the label Title font. There are 12 fonts to choose from such as Arial, Georgia, and Verdana. 
• To change the size of the title, click the drop-down box below the label Title font size. You can select from a range from 10 to 36. You can specify a value beyond the given options. You can also choose Auto to let Google Sheets adjust the font size fit for the given chart.
• To center align the title, go to Title format and click the Alignment option. Then click the Center option. 

After adding some visual aspects, we now have the following chart!

Alternatives to a Donut Chart

While the donut chart is extremely useful in certain circumstances, other charts can be better for showcasing specific types of data. Some alternatives to a donut chart are the following:

Stacked bar chart

Stacked area chart

If you don’t know how best to display your data, check out our article on all of the chart types in Google Sheets and when to use them for the best results.