Pie chart
circular statistical graphic
A pie chart (or a circle chart) is a circular statistical graphic which is divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportion. In a pie chart, the arc length of each slice (and consequently its central angle and area) is proportional to the quantity it represents. While it is named for its resemblance to a pie which has been sliced, there are variations on the way it can be presented. The earliest known pie chart is generally credited to William Playfair's Statistical Breviary of 1801.
Pie charts are very widely used in the business world and the mass media. However, they have been criticized, and many experts recommend avoiding them, as research has shown it is more difficult to make simple comparisons such as the size of different sections of a given pie chart, or to compare data across different pie charts. Some research has shown pie charts perform well for comparing complex combinations of sections (e.g., "A + B vs. C + D"). Commonly recommended alternatives to pie charts in most cases include bar charts, box plots, and dot plots.
History
The earliest known pie chart is generally credited to William Playfair's Statistical Breviary of 1801, in which two such graphs are used.
“Pie chart” enters the record as circular statistical graphic. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what chart, circular and statistical can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q273404. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1801.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pie chart” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.