A waffle chart is a 10×10 grid of small squares where each square represents 1% of the total. Colored squares show the proportion of each category, making it an intuitive and precise alternative to pie charts for showing parts of a whole.
What's Actually in Outer Space? (Spoiler: Mostly Nothing)
Best for
- Showing parts of a whole when precise percentages matter
- Making proportions intuitive — each square equals 1%
- Comparing a few categories with large differences in proportion
Avoid when
- You have many small categories — fractions of a square are confusing
- Values don't sum to a meaningful whole
- You need to show trends over time — waffle charts are static snapshots