Stacked bar chart
Stacked horizontal bar chart for composition within a category, emphasising the total.
bar-stacked segments horizontal bars into subcategories, showing both the individual parts and the total. Honours stackMode and stackPercent — flip to a 100 % view for pure composition.
When to use
- Showing how a total breaks down into parts
- Comparing totals across categories while keeping the composition visible
- 100 % stacked view (
stackPercent = true) when relative proportions matter more than absolute values - Categories with long labels that suit the horizontal orientation
When NOT to use
- When comparing individual segments across categories — only the segment on the baseline is easy to read
- When there are many small segments — they become invisible
- When precise segment-to-segment comparison is needed (use
bar-multiorbar-grouped)
Example
bpc
chart bar-stacked {
title = "India's working-age population now surpasses China's"
description = "Millions of people, 2023"
source = "UN Population Division"
sourceUrl = "https://population.un.org"
horizontalGridStyle = none
horizontalLabelPosition = off
data {
_series = "0-14","15-64","65+"
"China" = 249,987,191
"India" = 365,948,100
"USA" = 60,215,58
"Indonesia" = 66,191,18
"Brazil" = 42,150,22
}
}Common pitfalls
- Segments not on the baseline are nearly impossible to compare accurately — put the most important segment first
- Too many segments create visual noise without insight — cap at 3–5 and group the rest into "Other"
- Inconsistent segment ordering across bars breaks the visual rhythm
Related types
column-stacked— vertical equivalent for time-like x-axesbar-multi— when you'd rather compare series side by side than stack thembar-horizontal— single-series horizontal bars