It is common to create a population pyramid in Excel, in order to represent the distribution of its customers or employees. Unfortunately, Excel doesn't have this template in the Chart's ribbon. But you can easily create a population pyramid chart by following these steps.

The Data for a Population Pyramid

To learn how to draw a population pyramid chart in Excel, let's take this file with the population of Korea.

Step 1: Convert the Women's values with negative values

Before creating your chart, you must perform subtraction of one column with 0. Women are generally on the left of a population pyramid, so this column must have negative values.

• In a new column, write this formula =0-C4
• And copy this formula for the other cells

Step 2: Create a chart for your data

1. Select your Data
2. Select Insert > Recommended chart

3. Select the third option

Or, if you prefer to select this type of chart from the chart gallery

1. Go to Insert tab
2. Select the bar chart type
3. And the 2-D Bar option (horizontal representation)

You have created this chart but there is still work to do to have a perfect population pyramid chart.

Step 3: Remove the first Women's Series

We have a chart with two columns for the women (a positive column and a negative column). We must remove the positive column.

1. Select the chart
2. And select the menu Design > Select Data.

3. In the list of series, unchecked the first Women series

If you don't have unchecked the correct series, you can't reopen the same dialogue box and select the correct series this time 😉

Step 4: Format the bars of the chart

You can see that in your chart, the bars are thin and offset with respect to each other. Let's correct these 2 points

1. Double-click to any bars to display the Chart pane
2. Then select the Series options
3. Change the Series Overlap to 100%
4. Change the Gap Width to 0%

The chart becomes

Step 5: Reverse the chart

Next, we must reverse the vertical axis so that the lowest values ​​are at the bottom.

1. Select the Vertical axis from the pane with the dropdown menu

2. Select the Axis Option icon
3. Check the option Categories in reverse order

Step 6: Format the numbers

Here, we have 2 actions

• Remove the negative sign for the values of the Women
• Display the number of the ages on the left side of the chart

Remove negative numbers

1. Select the Horizontal Axis
2. Then, select the Axis Option icon
3. And the Number format option
4. Here is the trick in the format Code you write General;General (the delimiter is a semi-colon)

Display ages on the left side of the chart

1. Select the Vertical Axis
2. Then, select the Axis Option icon
3. And the Label section
4. In the label position, select the Low option

And the chart becomes

Change the design of the population pyramid

You can only use the various design menus for a very neat pyramid. The chart is now finished 😀😎👍

Related Articles

• How to create a Gantt Chart with Excel?
• Sunburst Chart with Excel
• Waterfall chart in Excel
• Radar chart in Excel