It’s tornado season. Don’t freak out, I am talking about Excel tornado charts. Use them to visualize age and gender-wise KPIs. Here is a quick demo of interactive tornado chart made in Excel. Watch it and read on to learn how to make your own tornado in a spreadsheet.
When to use Tornado charts?
Tornado charts / population pyramids are very useful in below situations.
- See population distribution by gender (obviously)
- Purchase patterns by gender and ages
- Customer walk-ins by gender and time of day
- Distribution of time on page by visitor type (customer / prospect)
- Units purchased by customer types (international vs. domestic)
In general, you can apply this type of charts whenever you have a strong binary category and a detailed dimension (time of day / age / distribution etc.)
How to create tornado chart in Excel?
Just open Excel in your laptop, load your data, go outdoors in Oklahoma (if you live outside Midwestern states then catch a flight to nearest one) and wait for a tornado.
Jokes aside, to tornado charts are nothing but cleverly formatted bar charts. Let me demonstrate how to make them from a sample data of London’s actual & projected population numbers.
Watch this video tutorial or read the instructions below to create this chart in Excel.
Step 1: Calculate necessary numbers for the tornado chart
This depends on your data. For the London population data-set that I am using, we need a summary like this.
Once you have the numbers by age and gender, we need to turn one of the gender values to negative.
To do this, just create a copy of the calculations, paste as linked values. Turn one gender values to negative by using – (minus) sign in the front.
We get this sort of table.
Step 2: Make a stacked bar chart
Select your age by gender (with negative values for one gender) values and insert “stacked bar” chart.
You will get this.
Step 3: Format the tornado chart
We are almost done. Just format the chart using below steps.
- Set gap between bars to 0 (select any bar, press CTRL+1 to format them and set gap width to 0)
- Move vertical axis labels to either low or high position, so that you can read them.
- Flip the tornado so you can see age 0 on top and 100 at bottom. To do this, select the vertical axis, go to format and click on “Categories in reverse order” option.
- Remove -ve signs from the horizontal axis labels. To do this, select the axis, format and go to “Number” settings. Here, you can tell Excel to omit the -ve sign while displaying labels with special codes. For numbers, you can use the code 0;0;;
Related: For more on custom formatting codes, see this page. - Move legend to top
- Add relevant chart title and captions if necessary.
Here is a time lapse GIF of the formatting steps.
Step 4: Make it interactive
Now that you have a tornado chart, you can easily make it interactive. Just move the slicer (from step 1) closer to the chart and you have an interactive tornado chart in Excel.
Download Tornado Chart Excel Template
Click here to download the full tornado chart template. Use it to learn how to make these.
Tornado Chart Alternatives
Histograms and Pareto Analysis
When you have more than two categories, then try histogram charts. You can explore distribution of all data or make it interactive (with slicers of course). See this page for details on histograms in Excel.
In-cell bar charts – when you have too many categories
Another option is to make a table visualizing everything. But a table of numbers can be dull. So make them visual with in-cell bar charts. Here is a case study of survey results from “how people in various countries spend money?”.
Check out Advanced Charting page for more inspiration.
Do you make tornado charts?
I create tornado charts often, especially when I am exploring demographic trends.
What about you? Do you make tornado charts? If so, how do you make them? Please share your tips and experiences in the comments section.
29 Responses to “You are invited [personal]”
Dear Sir,
This is to just Wish the kids a Happy birthday in Advance.May Almighty bless them all strength,Success
Dear Chandoo,
My best wishes to your child.I had become regular visitor of your site and finally today it made me to post a comment...
Best wishes from my end! Dont think it would be possible to personally come .. but my best wishes would always be there!! 🙂
Chandoo, thank you for the kind invitation. I wish a special birthday day for your daughters, Nishanth & Nakshatra. Will you be serving "dudh pakh"?
-bill
What a kind thought to invite us!
I pray your family will be continually blessed.
Thank you very much for the invitation, how I wish Philippines is just a Jeepney ride away from India. Best wishes for your baby girls and more blessings to come.
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for the invitation ! You treat everyone that comes to your site as part of your family community. Me and my family wishes Nishanth & Nakshatra a very very happy birthday !!
Though physically we cant be with you to celebrate the occasion, you know our blessing are with you !
To be a father is not easy, furthermore you have to be a father to 2 kids !
Francis
Dad of 2 and 9 year old.
Hi Chandoo,
It was very kind of you to invite us all along to the 'Extravaganza'. Like others that have commented here I too, am to far (Australia) to pop over for a piece of cake 🙂 Best wishes to you and your family on such a milestone.
Emma
(soon to be mum of 1!!!)
Dear Chandoo
God bless Nishanth & Nakshatra. Wishing you and your family a very enjoyable first birthday party.
(Father of a 9 month baby... wondering how you manage 2 !!! )
God bless the little ones. Have a blast.
Hi Chandoo
Happy birthday !
Indeed children are a blessing and make our lives much more deeper.
Wow! I wonder how that would look; all those Excel users partying with your cute kids!
Enjoy the festivities and remember; they grow up really fast.
Dear Chandoo,
Thanks for your invitation!
Please accept my wishes for Nishanth & Nakshatra, and a very very happy birthday to both of them.
(Father of a 1 year old baby)
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for the invitation. Wishing Nishanth and Nakshatra a very happy birthday and God bless all of you!
Howdy Chandoo,
Gosh, would love to attend the birthday party for your little blessings but I live in Dallas, TX. The children are beautiful. Thank you so much for the Excel information, tips, hints, special formulas, etc., you and your children are really a blessing. I look forward to your e-mails and check your web site frequently. Regards, Lynn
Chandoo Garu,
Your kids look adorable. Congratulations. My Aashirwaadam to both of them.
Regards,
Kalyan Verma
@all: Thank you every one for the wishes, blessings and prayers. We are very excited and busy with the birthday preps now. I will share a pic or two when its over... 🙂
Wish you and your entire family all the blessings. May god provide your babies with all the love and charm in the entire universe.
Like Emma I am rather far away (South Africa), but best wishes to you and your family on this special occasion.
(Mother of 7 and grandmother of 5)
Dear Chandoo,
May God Bless your little ones with Good Health... Happy birthday to them from me... Wish i could be there but work doesn't permit me to travel 🙁
And thanks again for treating all of us like your family
Rajatha
Sir.
God bless the two little angels with all the happiness in the world.....
Wishing Nishanth and Nakshatra a very happy first birthday. My youngest has just turned 18, and I wish you and your family every happiness in the exciting journey ahead.
Hi Chandoo,
I'm reading your blog for more than a year now, and i'm very pleased by this invitation.
I wish a very special Happy Birthday to the 2 little ones from Mauritius Island.
If, for any reason, you are coming on the island in the future, feel free to drop me a mail.
Have a nice party, and a nice year to come with Nishanth and Nakshatra.
Happy birthday!
Your babies are beautiful!
This year is not possible for us to attend. My family will be there for your next family party.
Enjoy the cake and dinner
May God Bless your little ones with Good Health… Happy birthday to them from me....I am also the father my little daughter named akanksha, she is 2.5 yrs old,,,,but i am unemployed 2 yrs ,,i know when u become a dad u r many hopes.
Guru
My belated wishes for your kids... I feel sorry for having missed them to wish to the right time.... May almighty shower all his blessings on your family.....
With regards
Chandoo,
Congratulations. Please give you children a big Happy Birthday (one day late) from me. Enjoy, they grow up very fast
Gene
@all.. thanks for the wishes and blessings. We had a fantastic weekend with all the relatives, friends. Kids loved the cake, enjoyed the beach and had fun playing with gifts. Here are some photos..
Chandoo & family - greetings from Ireland, hope you enjoyed the day!