How to Create a Sunburst Chart in Excel? Complete Guide

You’ll agree when we say displaying data hierarchically makes it incredibly easy for audiences to interpret key insights in a data story.

Why?

Our brains can instantly recognize high-to-low or low-to-high order of information.

So visualizing data using charts that display hierarchical insights can help you persuade your target audience (or readers).

This is where a Sunburst Chart in Excel comes in.

A Sunburst Diagram is an easy-to-interpret and amazingly insightful visualization. You should give it a try in your data stories before the year elapses.

We understand Excel is the go-to data visualization tool, especially among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). But, the application comes with a pretty basic Sunburst Chart. You need extra effort and time to customize the chart to align with your requirements.

Worry not.

There’s a Sunburst Chart generator that comes with a super-friendly user interface (UI) to guarantee you access to hierarchical insights.

This blog will walk you through how to get started with Sunburst Diagram in Excel in your data stories. You’ll also discover how to leverage a Sunburst Chart maker to get the most out of your data.

Keep reading if you intend to take your Excel spreadsheet game to the expert level by using a third-party add-in.

Before we delve into the how-to guide, let define Sunburst Diagram for your data stories. In the coming section, you’ll also learn the appropriate and proven situations to apply this chart.

So let’s get down to business.

Table of Content:

1. What is a Sunburst Chart?
2. How to Create Sunburst Chart in Excel in Few Clicks?
3. Treemap versus Sunburst Chart
4. Sunburst Chart Advantages
5. Components of Sunburst Chart in Excel
6. Why Should You Use Sunburst Chart in Excel?
7. Best Sunburst Chart Generator to Easily Create Sunburst Graph
8. How to Install Chartexpo For Excel?

What is a Sunburst Chart?

Definition: Sunburst Chart also known as the Sunburst Partition Chart, Ring Chart, or Radial Treemap, displays hierarchy in your raw data. Sunburst Diagram displays hierarchal insights through a series of concentric rings. Each circle in the Sunburst Chart corresponds to a level in the hierarchy of data points. More so, each ring is segmented proportionally to represent its constituent details.

Segments in the ring give a sense of the part-to-whole relationship of a data point with respect to its parent ring. Essentially, the Sunburst Chart with multiple categories shows how the outer rings relate to the inner rings.

Both Sunburst and Treemap are ideal for uncovering hierarchical insights into your data.

So, where do they differ in uses?

The Sunburst Diagram is most effective at showing part-to-whole insights. On the other hand, the Treemap Chart is ideal mostly for comparison.

Besides, the aforementioned graph uses a radial layout to create an immersive visualization experience, especially among your target audiences (and readers).

Another key difference is that the space-filling chart (Sunburst) uses a radial rather than a rectangular layout (like a Treemap). And, this underscores its significance, especially if your goal is to extract sequential insights from raw data.

To enjoy the immersive visualization experience brought about by Sunburst visualization, you need to go beyond the basic charts provided by Excel.

Yes, you read that right.

You need to give the Sunburst generator a try (we’ll talk about it in the coming sections). You don’t want to miss this.

How to Create Sunburst Chart in Excel in Few Clicks?

Let’s imagine you run multiple mobile phones shops across the country. You want to know the phone brands and their respective models that contribute hugely to your sales revenue.

Which chart would you go for?

If your answer is Sunburst Chart in Excel, you guessed right. Let’s assume the data below represents your business situation.

Store	Brands	Models	Sales
Store	Samsung	Galaxy Z Flip3	639
Store	Samsung	Galaxy S21 Ultra	899
Store	Samsung	Galaxy S20	887
Store	Samsung	Galaxy Z-Fold	625
Store	Xiaomi	Black Shark	690
Store	Xiaomi	Civil	560
Store	Xiaomi	Redmi Note 10	967
Store	Apple	iPhone 12	558
Store	Apple	iPhone 13 Pro Max	468
Store	Motorola	Pure	459
Store	Motorola	Edge	473
Store	Motorola	Stylus	941
Store	Motorola	Razr	736
Store	OnePlus	9 RT	499
Store	OnePlus	Nord 2	401
Store	OnePlus	Nord CE	664
Store	OnePlus	9 Pro	619

• To get started with Sunburst Charts Maker (ChartExpo add-in), copy the data above into your Excel.
• Remember, Sunburst Chart is located in the General Analysis Charts

• Select the Excel Sheet holding the tabular data (above).
• Fill in the respective dimensions and metrics into ChartExpo’s user interface (UI). In our case, the dimensions under study are stores, brands, and models. Conversely, we have one metric, namely You can select the respective data and click on “Create Chart From Selection”.

• Your Sunburst diagram in Excel should look similar to the one below. You can edit properties to add header, change colors, etc.

Insights

• Samsung mobile brand leads in sales ($53k).
• Redmi Note 10 (967) is the best performing single phone model, followed by Motorola Stylus (941).
• The worst performing phone brand is Apple (1.03K)

Treemap versus Sunburst Chart

In a Treemap, as you go down the hierarchical levels, the space available to plot decreases dramatically.

And this sets a limitation to the number of hierarchical levels you can display at a glance. More so, as the categories delve deeper, they become challenging to read. This is not the chart you want if your goal is to visualize bulky data for hierarchical insights, such as part-to-whole patterns.

On the other hand, the Sunburst Chart allows you to access more plotting space as you go down the hierarchical levels.

If space isn’t really an issue, you can leverage the Sunburst to paint a complete picture of the multiple layers.

Sunburst Chart Advantages

• The radial orientation of the Sunburst uses space more efficiently than other hierarchical visualization charts, such as Treemap.
• The Sunburst Chart is amazingly intuitive because it resembles a Pie Chart, which is familiar.
• With a Sunburst Graph, you can easily extract hierarchical insights irrespective of the size of your data.

Use cases of the Sunburst Diagram in Excel

Let’s agree on this.

The go-to chart for displaying hierarchical insights is the Sunburst.

This easy-to-interpret chart breaks out general categories in your raw data into subsets. This can help your audience (or readers) to interpret vital data points exhibiting part–to–whole relationships.

There’s a ton of practical and successful applications of Sunburst in today’s world.

Let’s check them out in-depth.

• You can use the Sunburst visualization to display the landing and navigation paths on your website.
• This chart can help you display insights into the file size of different modules in a software package.
• A huge chunk of business analysts in Fortune 500 companies use a Sunburst Chart to visualize the revenue sources of their companies.
• Use this chart if your goal is to display the hierarchy of world population with respect to continents, countries, regions, states, and cities.

Here’s the truth.

Excel is a trusted data visualization tool because it’s familiar and has been there for decades. But, this spreadsheet application should not be your go-to Sunburst Diagram maker, especially if you want to harness hidden, actionable insight.

Why?

Excel as a Sunburst chart generator produces pretty basic charts that can consume massive amounts of effort and time in editing and customizations.

Essentially, you can spend a lot of time customizing Excel-generated charts according to your needs.

We understand making a change is one of the greatest personal battles one can ever undertake. And this is why we’re not advocating you ditch Excel in favor of other pricey tools. There’s a Sunburst chart maker that comes as an add-in you can install in your Excel to access the advanced chart library.

It’s no doubt there’re thousands of add-ins for Excel. The add-in we’ve tested and already guided you which has provided remarkable results is ChartExpo.

Components of Sunburst Chart in Excel

A Sunburst Chart consists of an inner circle surrounded by rings of deeper hierarchy levels. Besides, the angle of each segment is either proportional to a value or divided equally under its parent node. You have an option of assigning different colors to segments in the Sunburst Chart based on category or hierarchy levels.

Did you know the Sunburst Chart was developed to accommodate the sub-units of the Pie Chart’s primary segments?

If not, you now possess the knowledge best kept for data visualization enthusiasts.

Let’s dig deeper into the components of the Sunburst Diagram in Excel.

• Each row represents the path from the root node to a leaf node.
• The number of path columns corresponds to the maximal depth of the hierarchy in your data set.
• Paths shorter than the maximal depth are a sign that you need to fill up with missing values.

Why Should You Use Sunburst Chart in Excel?

Here’s an interesting fact about Sunburst Charts.

You can use Sunburst Chart, especially when you’re working with large amounts of data to extract hierarchically structured insights.

If you use color and size strategically, this chart can help you uncover hidden insights that would otherwise be difficult to spot using other types of charts.

The Sunburst Chart comes as a circle, where each node can have more sub-nodes. Each node in the chart is an arc sized and colored to align with your key data points.

You have unlimited freedom to specify how many levels to display simultaneously in a Sunburst Chart in Excel.

Best Sunburst Chart Generator to Easily Create Sunburst Graph

ChartExpo is one of the best tools that over 30,000 professionals worldwide use to create Sunburst graphs and other insightful and easy-to-understand visualizations. It comes as an add-in you can easily install in your Excel to get the most from your data.

Labeling is one of the proven ways to make your data stories more compelling and easy to understand.

ChartExpo comes with easy-to-spot pencil-like icons to grant you unlimited freedom to label your Sunburst charts based on your needs.

This tool is loaded with 50-plus advanced charts in its library, such as:

• Pareto Diagram
• Sankey Chart
• Radial Chart
• Gauge Chart
• Likert Chart, among others.

How to Install Chartexpo For Excel?

To get started, open your Excel.

• Open the worksheet and click on the Insert menu
• You’ll see the option in Excel top Menu. Click the My Apps option and then the See All button.

• Search for ChartExpo Add-in on my Apps Store

• Click the Insert button.
• To access the Sunburst Chart generator (ChartExpo), click the Sign in with Microsoft button.
• Finish the sign-in or sign up by clicking the Next button.

Congratulations if you’ve installed the Sunburst graph maker (ChartExpo) in your Excel.

Once it is installed you will see a list of charts provided by ChartExpo.

You have two options you can find a Sunburst Chart in Excel in ChartExpo.

• The first option is to type “Sunburst” in the Search box, as shown below. You will see the “Sunburst Partition Chart”

• The other option is to browse charts available manually using the List or Category option.

• In the category option, Sunburst Charts are found in the General Analysis Charts category.

How can you visualize your data using Sunburst Chart in Excel?

FAQ:

How does a Sunburst Diagram work?

The Sunburst Chart is ideal for displaying hierarchical insights into your data.

Each hierarchy level in the chart is represented by one ring or circle, with the innermost circle as the highest point of the hierarchy. A Sunburst Diagram (without hierarchical levels) shares remarkable similarities with a Donut Chart.

How can you create a Sunburst Chart in Excel?

The go-to data visualization tool for many businesses is Excel because it’s easy to use and familiar to many.

However, it produces basic Sunburst Charts that require more time to customize and edit. Supercharge your Excel with add-ons, such as ChartExpo, to access charts that are amazingly easy to read.

Wrap Up:

Hierarchically displaying data is one of the easiest ways of extracting reliable insights.

What’s the best chart for the job other than the Sunburst Chart in Excel?

Well, a Sunburst Chart is such a visualization that designs experts use to determine the hierarchy of crucial data points.

So what Sunburst Diagram maker do we recommend?

We recommend you install third-party apps, such as ChartExpo in Excel, to access advanced charts. ChartExpo is an add-in you can easily download and install in your Excel spreadsheet.

ChartExpo’s extensive library has the Sunburst Graph, plus over 50 more charts. Besides, you don’t need programming or coding skills to visualize your data using the Sunburst Visualization generator.

Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access Sunburst Charts that are amazingly easy to interpret and visually appealing to your target audience.