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Pie charts are useful to compare different parts of a whole
amount. They are often used to present financial information.
E.g. A company's expenditure can be shown to be the sum
of its parts
including different expense categories such as salaries, borrowing interest,
taxation and general running costs (i.e. rent, electricity, heating etc). A pie chart is a circular chart in which the
circle is divided into
sectors.
Each sector visually represents an item in a data set to match the amount of
the item as a percentage
or fraction of the total data set.
Example 9
A family's weekly expenditure on its house mortgage, food and fuel is as
follows:
Draw a pie chart to display the information.
Solution:
We can find what percentage of the total expenditure each item equals.
Percentage of weekly expenditure on:
To draw a pie chart, divide the circle into 100 percentage parts.
Then allocate the number of percentage parts required for each item.
Note:
- It is simple to read a pie chart. Just look at the required
sector representing an item (or category) and read off the value.
For example, the weekly expenditure of the family on food is 37.5% of
the total expenditure measured.
- A pie chart is used to compare the different parts that make up a
whole amount.
Key Terms
pie chart
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