Stacked Column Chart in Excel (Table of Contents)
Stacked Column Chart in Excel
A stacked Column Chart is used when for a single time period; we want to show the data with the coverage of each parameter over the same period, which is available in the Insert menu tab. For example, we have sales data of Mobile, Laptop and TV for six months. Using the Stacked Column Chart, we can show the coverage of all 3 products in a single column for each of the six-month data. This saves space, and the chart created using this is type looks compact as well.
The stacked chart clearly represents the sales of products in different quarters.
A column chart that only represents the sales of a different product but not allows us to easily know what is the share of different product in the total sales?
Stacked column charts are those chart options that allow a user to combine one group’s data and then show that data in different segments that correspond to different sections amongst the same group. Stacked charts basically make the column charts one on another column chart, and the charts that are prepared as stacked are like fixing one bar chart on another chart.
How to Create Stacked Column Chart in Excel?
Creating a stacked column chart is not as difficult as it seems; creating a stacked column chart involves only some clicks, and you will be done with creating the stacked column chart.
Stacked Column Chart in Excel Example #1
Let’s consider a case in which the company sold four types of products in a year, and we have data on the sales of these products.
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Now we want to know what type of product has contributed what percentage to the total sales we can use a stacked column chart.
Step 1: Firstly, enter the data for which you want to create a stacked column chart and select the data.
Step 2: Then go to the toolbar tab, here you can see the “insert” option.
Click on Insert and then click on column chart options as shown below.
In Column chart options, you will see several options; choose the stacked column stack option to create stacked column charts.
Step 3: After selecting the data as mentioned above and selecting a stacked column chart. You can see the below chart.
Step 4: You can also use the DESIGN option to make the chart more presentable.
Click on the Format option and then choose the font that suits the chart.
Step 5:
By this step, a stacked column chart is already prepared, but by using this step, we can add life to the old spreadsheet charts and make them look different.
- Add chart elements
In the chart elements, we can add all the above-listed elements in our stacked column chart, and this will add more of the information to the normal usual stacked charts.
Here one of the chart elements, such as legend, is used. Click on legend. Select legend at the bottom.
Now the Legend will look at the bottom of our Chart.
- Quick layouts.
If we are confused about what elements should be in our stacked column chart, this option will be of our utmost use. In this option, we can simply hover on the icons in the quick layout elements and can see what elements are inserted by these options.
- Change colors
Sometimes this become important that the color plays an important role in the graphs, especially if the data belongs to the paint industry.
Right-click on the Chart Select Format Chart Area.
By Selecting Format Chart Area to go to fill> Gradient Fill. Select your color.
To change the Color of the Plot Area, Right-click on Format Plot Area.
Select fill> Gradient Fill and Select your color.
Using the change color option, we can simply change the chart’s theme and choose more comfortable colors for our stacked column chart.
To add Chart title go to Layout>Chart title>select Above chart.
Chart tile is added to the above chart.
Finally, the Stacked Column Chart looks like this.
Stacked Column Chart in Excel Example #2
Suppose now we have a case of a college where we want to know how many lectures have been taken by which lecturer. In this case, we use a stacked column chart.
Then go to the toolbar tab, here you can see the “insert” option.
Click on Insert and then click on column chart options as shown below.
After selecting the data as mentioned above and selecting a stacked column chart, you can see the below chart.
Follow the steps as per the above Example, i.e. Example 1, to get the desired Stacked Column Chart.
Pros of using Stacked Column Chart in Excel
- They help in easily knowing the contribution of a factor to the group.
- They are easy to understand.
- Easy to visualize results on bar graphs.
- Easy to depict the difference between the various inputs of the same group.
Cons of using Stacked Column Chart in Excel
- These charts do not give good results when it comes to deeper analysis of data.
- Stacked column charts are useful only if there are limited segments in a group; if there are many inputs that belong to the same group, then the stacked column chart will be very congested, making the analysis difficult.
- Overlapping of data labels, in some cases, this is seen that the data labels overlap each other, and this will make the data to be difficult to interpret.
Things to Remember
- A stacked column chart in Excel can only be prepared when we have more than 1 data that has to be represented in a bar chart. If we have only one data that is to be displayed, then we can only make a Bar chart and not the stacked column chart.
- Each column in the bar represents the data that belongs to that group only. Suppose if we have to show the data of two products sales in Q1, then the bar will represent the data of product A, and the same bar will have the data of Product B.
- Only one data from one row can be represented in the bar chart of the stacked column charts.
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This has been a guide to Stacked Column Chart in Excel. Here we discuss its uses and how to create Stacked Column Chart in Excel with excel examples and downloadable excel templates. You may also look at these useful functions in excel –
