How to create a pie chart in Google Data Studio?

Pie charts present numerical information in a circular form, with sections of the circle representing the range of data series.

Pie charts are useful for displaying a small number of data points with large variations in proportion, making them great for visualizing proportions of qualitative and numeric data.

Pie charts have many uses, but they are often used to display the simplest representation of data.

How do pie charts work?

Pie charts are easy to read, particularly if you’re a fan of circular data visualizations. You’ll notice that pie charts display slices specifically numbered and labelled according to their overall proportion in the whole (ex. 50% is half of the entire data set).

Below you can see 2 pie charts. First, one shows the source of website visitors and the second one shows visitors' gender distribution.

How to add a pie chart to Google Data Studio?

In order to add a pie chart to your report, click the "Add a chart" button on the toolbar and select the pie chart or ring chart. As you can see from the short video below, you can change pie to ring or vice versa.

Chart Settings

Click on the chart, afterwards on the right, use the properties panel to change the chart options.

Data Tab

This tab shows settings related to the data source.

Data source: A data source lets you to connect to the data set you want to use. Data source options are: change the data source, view/edit the data source, add a blended data source.

Dimension: Dimensions are categories for your data, and dimension values are a name, description or another characteristic of a category. You can choose dimensions either directly from the available fields or by clicking the "Add Dimension" link. Dimensions may differ according to cart types. For example, geo charts' dimensions will be only locations.

Drill down: This option appears if the chart support it. Drilling down gives viewers a way to reveal additional levels of detail. When you turn on Drill down, ****each dimension you add becomes another level of detail you can see. Here is an example of how drill down works;

Breakdown dimension: The Breakdown dimension is a way to see how the data in a chart is broken down by a selected dimension. Here is an example; Age is the main dimension and gender is the breakdown dimension.

Metric: Metrics are used to measure the contents of dimensions and provide the chart with a numeric scale and data series. Drag fields from the Available Fields tab on the right onto the chart to add measurements. You can also click Add metric in the Data tab.

Optional metrics allows you to select more than 1 metric and the viewer will be able to change them.

Metric Slider gives the viewer an option to filter desired metric value to view. For example, you can limit the chart to only show Average Orders where the total value is between $100 and $200. (not all charts offer this option)

💡 At least 1 metric is required. You can have up to 20 metrics in a single-dimensional graphic. One metric can be used for charts with two dimensions.

Setting the default sort: The Sort and Secondary sort options control the default sorting behaviour. You can select any metric in the chart's data source, or any dimension currently displayed in the chart, to use as the primary or secondary sorting field. The Secondary sort option only appears when there is an appropriate combination of dimensions and metrics in the chart.

Default Date Range: This lets you choose the date scope of the data.

Style tab

A chart's style properties control the overall presentation and appearance of the chart.

Colour by: Here you can change colour settings.

Labels: Change the appearance of labels. Always double check as a viewer after making changes. Too small or large fonts might overlap from the borders or might look too small to read.

• Font colour: Changes the font colour of the scorecard label.
• Font size: Changes the font size of the scorecard label.
• Font family: Changes the font family of the scorecard label.
• Hide Metric Name: Hides the default metric name (which comes from the data source). You can use the Text tool to add a custom metric label.
• Alignment: Align the metric name, primary value, and comparison value.

Background and border: These options control the appearance of the chart background container.

• Background: Sets the chart background colour.
• Border Radius: Adds rounded borders to the chart background. When the radius is 0, the background shape has 90° corners. A border radius of 100° produces a circular shape.
• Opacity: Sets the chart's opacity. 100% opacity completely hides objects behind the chart. 0% opacity makes the chart invisible.
• Border Color: Sets the chart border colour.
• Border Weight: Sets the chart border line thickness.
• Border Style: Sets the chart borderline style.
• Add border shadow: Adds a shadow to the chart lower and right borders.

Legend:

• None: No legend appears
• Right: Legend appears on the right.
• Bottom: Legend appears on the bottom.
• Top: Legend appears on the top.
• Alignment: Sets the alignment of the legend relative to the selected position.
• Max lines Set the number of lines used by the legend. If the number of series requires more lines, overflow items can be displayed by clicking the < and > arrows.

Chart Header: The chart header lets viewers perform various actions on the chart, such as exporting the data, drilling up or down, and viewing the chart in the Explorer tool. You can choose a show on hover - which is the default, always show and do not show.