Part-to-Whole
Sunburst Chart
A radial treemap where concentric rings represent hierarchy levels and arc angles encode proportions at each depth.
Team Headcount by Department
Hierarchical breakdown of employees
View data (8 rows)
| Category | Value | Subcategory |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 150 | Backend |
| Engineering | 120 | Frontend |
| Engineering | 60 | DevOps |
| Design | 80 | UX |
| Design | 50 | Visual |
| Product | 40 | Management |
| Product | 35 | Analytics |
| Marketing | 45 | Growth |
Use a sunburst chart when…
- Showing hierarchical part-to-whole relationships in a compact radial form
- Allowing drill-down exploration of nested categories
Avoid when…
- When precise comparisons between slices are needed
- When the hierarchy is flat with only one level
Data it needs
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Min Rows | 5 |
| Min Columns | 2 |
| Column Types | stringnumber |
| Notes | Requires hierarchical category columns and a value column. |
Visual anatomy
Marks
arc
Channels
angle (proportion)radius (depth)color (category)
Axes
-
Guiding principles
Consider instead
Common mistakes
Including too many tiny slices that become unreadable
Not providing labels or tooltips for inner rings
History
John Stasko introduced the sunburst layout in 2000 as a radial space-filling alternative to treemaps.
Accessibility notes
Provide a hierarchical text list with values; announce breadcrumb path on focus.
Related reading
Got data? Let's see what works.
Drop your CSV. You'll get a Sunburst Chart plus four alternatives - ranked by which one actually fits your data best.