chart
stacked bar chart
also: component bar chart, absolute bar chart, stacked column, stacked column chartBars split into segments that sum to the total.
diagramme en barres empilées
aussi : barres empilées, colonne empiléeBarres découpées en segments dont la somme forme le total.
Classification
- chart
- bars › grouped or stacked bars
- part-to-whole; Financial Times Visual Vocabulary
Channels
position on common scale; main: total and first segment (the only ones aligned on the baseline); Munzner 2014
position on unaligned scale; main: upper segments (offset baselines); Munzner 2014
length; main: value of each segment; Munzner 2014
spatial region; main: category; Munzner 2014
color hue; secondary: series; Munzner 2014
Variants
diverging stacked bar chartdiverging
Marimekko chartvariable width
Attestation and synonyms
- French term: Lagnel, Manuel de datavisualisation, Dunod, 2021
- English definition: Brinton, Graphic Presentation, 1939↗
- component bar chart; Brinton, Graphic Presentation, 1939↗
- absolute bar chart; Brinton, Graphic Presentation, 1939↗
Scientific literature
OpenAlex: 582 papers since 1979, 48% in the last five years; mostly in Computer Science, Chemistry, Medicine
Seminal references
R packages
- R
ggplot2::position_stack(); GitHub 7 025 stars; last commit 2026-10; paper (33 455 citations) Position par défaut de geom_bar.
R code of the ggplot2 example
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(palmerpenguins)
## Each species ends exactly one bar: its name goes after that bar.
ends <- penguins |>
count(island, species) |>
group_by(island) |>
summarise(n = sum(n), species = last(species))
p <- ggplot(penguins, aes(y = island, fill = species)) +
geom_bar(width = 0.7, position = position_stack(reverse = TRUE)) +
geom_text(data = ends, aes(x = n, label = species, colour = species),
hjust = 0, nudge_x = 3, size = 3.5) +
scale_x_continuous(labels = lex_number, expand = expansion(mult = c(0, 0.2))) +
labs(title = "Adelie is the only species on all three islands",
x = "Number of penguins", y = NULL,
caption = "Data: palmerpenguins (Horst, Hill & Gorman 2020)") +
theme_lex_viz(grid = "x", arrows = "x") +
theme(legend.position = "none")Sources (43)
226 occurrences in the corpus; indexed by 10 books
Show the 43 sources
- analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk
- app.flourish.studio
- Atlas of knowledge: anyone can map
- Better data visualizations: a guide for scholars, researchers, and wonks
- Bremer & Barone, Chart, CRC Press, 2025
- Brinton, Graphic Presentation, 1939↗
- Data points: visualization that means something
- Data sketches
- Data story: explain data and inspire action through story
- Data Visualisation Guide, data.europa.eu
- Data visualisation: a handbook for data driven design
- Data visualization handbook
- Data visualization: a practical introduction
- Data Viz Project
- Data-driven storytelling
- dataphys.org
- datavizproject.com
- datawrapper.de↗
- Effective data storytelling: how to drive change with data, narrative, and visuals
- Effective data visualization: the right chart for the right data
- Elavsky, Chartability: POUR-CAF accessibility heuristics
- Exploratory Data Analysis: Descriptive Analysis, Visualization, and Dashboard Design (w...
- Graphic presentation
- Info we trust: how to inspire the world with data
- Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference
- Interactive data visualization: foundations, techniques, and applications
- Lagnel, Manuel de datavisualisation, Dunod, 2021
- Les fondamentaux de la visualisation de données
- LibreTexts Statistics, textbook chapters on charts
- Manuel de datavisualisation - 2e éd, vol. 2
- More Practical Charts
- Open Visualization Academy, courses and newsletter (Cairo et al.)
- Practical charts: the essential guide to creating clear, compelling charts for reports ...
- Storytelling with data: let's practice!
- The big book of dashboards: visualizing your data using real-world business scenarios
- The book of circles: visualizing spheres of knowledge
- The grammar of graphics
- The Wall Street journal guide to information graphics: the dos and don'ts of presenting...
- Visualization Analysis and Design
- Visualize This
- Visualizing with text
- Wickham, Çetinkaya-Rundel & Grolemund, R for Data Science, 2nd ed., 2023
- Wilke, Fundamentals of Data Visualization, O'Reilly, 2019
Cite this entry
Stable addresshttps://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en/term/stacked-bar-chart.html
ReferenceTaudière Adrien. 2026. stacked bar chart. In Visualization Vocabulary, version 1.0.0. IdEst. https://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en/term/stacked-bar-chart.html
BibTeX
@incollection{taudiere2026-stacked-bar-chart,
author = {Taudière, Adrien},
title = {stacked bar chart},
booktitle = {Visualization Vocabulary},
year = {2026},
version = {1.0.0},
publisher = {IdEst},
url = {https://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en/term/stacked-bar-chart.html},
note = {CC0 1.0}
}Page created on 2026-10-13. Text last changed on 2026-10-22. Images last changed on 2026-10-22. Numbers computed on 2026-10-22.