Sunburst Chart
A sunburst chart displays a hierarchy in concentric rings. Inner segments represent parent groups. Outer segments divide those parents into children. Each child's angular span represents its share within the hierarchy.
Read from the center outward
The example has two top-level sections: Product and Company. Product contains Guides and Features. Company contains About and Careers.
Guides has 240 views out of 600 overall, so it spans 40% of the full circle. It also accounts for 60% of its parent Product section's 400 views.
Compare the right parts
Compare angular spans within the same ring. Segments farther from the center cover more physical area for the same angle, so area alone is not a fair comparison across levels.
Each child should belong to one parent. Use values that add up consistently, and avoid adding a parent total on top of the values of its children.
Keep the hierarchy shallow
A few levels can show a useful breakdown. Many levels create thin rings and small labels. If readers need to explore deeper, offer navigation with a clear path back to the full view.
This example keeps the full hierarchy visible. Its sample table provides the leaf values without requiring a hover or click.
A treemap uses rectangles for the same kind of data. For one level with only a few categories, a pie chart may be enough.
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