How to Create Stacked Column Chart in Excel? (with Examples)

Stacked Column Chart in Excel

Stacked column chart in excel is a column chart where multiple series of the data representation of various categories are stacked over each other, the series which are stacked are vertical and the comparison for multiple data series is easy but as the number of data series increases the complexity of representation also increases.

5 Main Parts of Stacked Column Chart

The title describes the information about the Stacked Column
(Horizontal) The x-axis represents an individual entry for which the values are to be presented.
Bars The height of a bar represents the total value as the sum of the values of all the legend.
(Vertical) Y-axis denotes the intervals spanning across the lowest and highest value.
Legend describes the type/category of the dataset that contributes to the column bars.

Types of Stacked Column Chart in Excel

Stacked Column
3-D Stacked Column Chart
100% Stacked Column
3-D 100% Stacked Column

How to Create a Stacked Column Chart in Excel? (with Examples)

You can download this Stacked Column Chart template here – Stacked Column Chart template

Example #1 – Steps to Create a Basic Excel Stacked Column Chart

Step 1 – Select the range of cells (rows and columns) containing the data to be presented using a stacked column graph. This would be the input data for the chart.

Step 2 – Click on Recommended Charts as shown in the below figure.

Step 3 – Select Columns-> Stacked Column Chart from the given list -> Click OK

As shown in the above figure, the data consists of 2 columns B and C indicating marks of Maths and Science, respectively.

The chart on the right side is a stacked column graph wherein X-axis represents the sequence of each entry such as 1, 2, 3, …, 10. The Y-axis indicates marks. The interval is auto-generated by Excel to 50 hence the values are 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250. The height of the bars represents the value. As the name of the chart is “stacked”, the legends are stacked in a single column. As seen in the chart, the blue color indicates column 1 i.e. Maths m marks and orange color indicates column 2 i.e. Science marks.

The maximum value shown by each column bar is the total of all the values of each legend. E.g. 50 + 70 = 120 for column 1.

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Example #3 – Steps to Create 3-D Stacked Column

It is different from the default stacked column graph only in terms of representation of the column bars. This enables a better view of the column bars if compared to the default one. The rest of the features remain like that of a 100% stacked column.

Example #4 – Steps to Create 100% Stacked Column

This chart is slightly different from the default stacked column that the height of every column or bar is 100% by default and the legends are divided among that 100%. So, the maximum value shown by each column bar will always be 100 unlike the sum of the values of all legends in the default stacked column.

As shown in the above figure, the data consists of 2 columns B and C indicating marks of Maths and Science, respectively. The chart on the right side is a 100% stacked column wherein the X-axis represents the sequence of each entry such as 1, 2, 3, …, 10. The Y-axis indicates marks. There is no interval in this type of chart. The height of each legend represents the value (i.e. marks here) among 100% occupied by the bar.

Like a normal stacked chart, the legends are stacked in a single column. Blue color represents column 1 i.e. Maths marks and Orange color represents column 2 i.e. Science marks.

Example #5 – Steps to Create 3-D 100% Stacked Column

3-D 100% stacked column is different from a 100% stacked column only in terms of representation of the column bars. This enables a better view of the column bars if compared to the default one. The rest of the features remain like that of a 100% stacked column.

Pros

Each column bar represents one value. So, the Stacked Column graph is useful where the entities to be measured are discrete such as Marks.

Cons

A Stacked Column may not be a good choice if the dataset is too large.

Things to Remember

The stacked column graph is based on the column bars which comprise of one or multiple legends.
One column bar is composed of the values of all participating legends.
One column bar represents one row from the given dataset.
They represent a discrete dataset wherein one column represents one individual entry (row) in the dataset.