The Five Chart Types You Need

There are dozens of chart types. You need five. Bar, line, pie, scatter, and table. These five cover 95% of business decisions. Everything else is a specialization you can learn when you need it — and most people never do.

1. Bar Chart — Comparison Use bar charts when you are comparing discrete categories. Revenue by product line, headcount by department, conversion rate by channel. Horizontal bars work best for ranked lists. Vertical bars work best for time-based comparisons with few periods. Always start the axis at zero.
2. Line Chart — Trend Over Time Use line charts when you are tracking change over time. Monthly revenue, daily active users, weekly pipeline velocity. The line implies continuity between data points, so only use it when the data is actually continuous. Do not use a line chart for categorical data — that implies a trend where none exists.
3. Pie / Donut Chart — Part of a Whole Use pie charts only when you have 2 to 5 categories that sum to 100%. Market share, budget allocation, revenue mix. More than 5 slices and the chart becomes unreadable — the human eye cannot reliably distinguish wedge sizes that are close in value. Switch to a bar chart at 6+ categories.
4. Scatter Plot — Relationship Between Variables Use scatter plots when you want to see if two variables are related. Deal size vs. sales cycle length, ad spend vs. conversions, employee tenure vs. productivity. Clusters reveal segments. Outliers reveal anomalies. No pattern reveals that there is no relationship — which is itself a finding.
5. Table — Precision When You Need It Use tables when exact numbers matter more than visual patterns. Financial statements, detailed comparisons across many dimensions, reference data. Tables are not glamorous, but they are the most honest format — there is no visual distortion, no hidden axis, no design choice shaping your interpretation.