In infographics and other visuals, I have many times come across a pie chart in which each slice has a different radius based on the percentage it represents: the slices representing categories with large percentages have larger radii (the plural of radius is radii), while the slices representing categories with small percentages have shorter radii. The advantage of such a pie chart is that it further emphasizes the relative importance of a particular category to the total and is useful when you want to draw attention to categories with large percentages. Also, it can be a visually nice addition to any dashboard, report or presentation. For all these reasons, I have decided to create this pie chart in Excel and share it with you.

Note: This tutorial uses Excel 2013. In other Excel versions, there may be some slight differences in the described steps.

Watch the video below to see how to create a pie chart in Excel in which each slice has a different radius based on the percentage it represents. If you prefer written instructions, then continue reading.

The basic idea in creating this chart is to make a separate pie chart for each category in which only the slice representing that category is visible, set the area of each chart equal to the percentage value of its visible category and then combine all charts together to create one single pie chart. Here are the steps:

1. Enter the data that you will use to create the pie chart. For the purpose of this tutorial, I am using the data of top 10 gold medal winning countries of the Rio 2016 Olympics.

2. Calculate the percentage proportion of each country next to its count of gold medals. To calculate the percentage proportion of each country, write the formula =B2/SUM($B$2:$B$11)*100 in the cell next to the count of the first country and copy it down to the other cells below.

These percentage values will be used as the sizes of the chart areas of pie charts to be created.

3. Set the heights and widths of charts to be created. Considering the largest chart area size in our example is 25.27, I set the heights of charts to 5 and write it in the next column. To find the widths of charts, divide the areas by the heights by writing the formula =C2/D2 in the adjacent cell and copying it down to the other cells below.

4. To format the cells as numbers with two decimal places, click the Number Format drop down menu in the Number group of the Home tab and select Number.

5. Select the data that you will use to create the pie chart. On the Insert tab of the ribbon, in the Charts group, click on the Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart button and in the opened menu, click on the first option among the 2-D Pie Charts.

This inserts a pie chart into the worksheet.

6. Do the following formatting changes in the chart:

• Remove the white outline from around the slices by clicking on the pie and on the Format tab under Chart Tools, choosing No Outline in the Shape Outline drop down menu.

• Make the chart area transparent by clicking on the chart and on Format tab under Chart Tools, changing the Shape fill to No Fill and the Shape Outline to No Outline for the chart area.

• Remove the chart title by clicking on the Chart Elements button and unticking the Chart Title option in the Chart Elements menu.

• Change the legend position to the right. To do that, hover your cursor over the Legend option in the Chart Elements menu and click on the arrow next to it. In the opened submenu, choose Right to place the legend at the right of the chart.

7. Extract the legend out of the chart in order to use it later as the legend of the final chart. To do that:

• Copy the chart and paste it as a picture by clicking the Paste drop down menu and selecting Picture among the Paste Options.

• To extract the legend out of the pasted image, click on the Format tab under Picture Tools and then click the Crop button in the Size group. Black cropping handles will appear around the image. Drag the cropping handles to crop the unwanted areas around the legend. To finish the cropping, click on any cell.  Set the extracted legend aside.

8. Decrease the chart size in order to make the work easy, make 10 copies of the chart and place them side by side on the worksheet.

Now we will do some changes in the first pie chart and then repeat these changes for all the other pie charts.

9. In the first pie chart, make all the slices transparent except the slice representing United States. To do that, click on each category in the legend except United States and on the Format tab under Chart Tools, apply No Fill to the slice representing that category. At the end, only the slice representing United States will be visible.

10. Add percentage as label to the visible slice. To do that:

• With the visible slice selected, click on the Chart Elements button and in the Chart Elements menu, hover your cursor over the Data Labels option and click on the arrow next to it.

• In the opened submenu, click on More Options.

• This opens the Format Data Label task pane. Here, untick Value and tick the Percentage option to show only percentage.

11. Increase the font size of the data label and make it bold. To do that, click the Font Size drop down menu in the Font group of the Home tab and select size 12. To apply bold formatting, click on the Bold button.

12. Remove the legend from the chart by unticking the Legend option in the Chart Elements menu.

13. Change the area of the chart by clicking on the Format tab under Chart Tools and setting the chart height and width in the Size group based on the previous calculations. For the first chart, in which only the slice representing United States is visible, the height should be 5 and the width should be 5.05.

14. Repeat the changes done in the first pie chart for every chart: in the second pie chart, leave the slice representing Great Britain visible and make the other slices transparent; in the third pie chart, leave the slice representing China visible while making the others transparent and so on. Also, repeat all the formatting changes done in the first pie chart such as adding percentage as label to the visible slice, increasing the font size of the data label and making it bold, removing the legend and changing the area of the chart based on previously set height and width for every chart as well. At the end, there will be ten pie charts, each having one visible slice representing one distinct country. The end result should look like below:

15. Select all the charts and align them to the center and middle by clicking on the Format tab under Drawing Tools and choosing Align Center and Align Middle in the Align drop down menu.

16. Group all the charts together by choosing Group in the Group drop down menu on the Format tab under Drawing Tools.

17. Finally, bring the legend next to the chart and group them together by choosing Group in the Group drop down menu on the Format tab under Drawing Tools or Picture Tools.

Our pie chart in which each slice has a different radius based on the percentage it represents is ready.

What do you think about this chart? Would you use it? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.