Summary

I was looking at an article on forbes.com about popular college degrees for women and men. They listed 9 degrees for both women and men (on many, many pages), and this chart is just a mash-up of the data they cited, sorted to show popular degrees for women at the top.

The chart type is 100% stacked bar, and its a good example of how a bar charts can accommodate extremely long labels. The data used in the chart looks like this:

Data used to plot this chart

How to make this chart

  1. Select data and insert column chart via ribbon:
    Insert bar / column chart on ribbon
  2. Choose 100% stacked bar chart under 2d bars:
    Select 100% stacked bar option under 2d bar charts
  3. Chart as inserted:
    100% stacked bar chart as inserted
  4. Select data series and increase bar width:
    Select data series and decrease gap width
  5. Select each data series and set desired color.
  6. Select data series for women and reverse category:
    Reverse category order, set horizontal axis to cross at max category
  7. Add Data Labels:
    Select chart and add data labels
  8. Move legend to top:
    Select legend and move to top
  9. Select and delete gridlines
  10. Set title as desired
  11. Final chart before resizing and adjusting font size:
    Final 100% stacked bar before resizing and adjusting font size
Dave Bruns Profile Picture

AuthorMicrosoft Most Valuable Professional Award

Dave Bruns

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.

Chart types