How to create a Marimekko chart or Mekko chart in Excel

Excel 365
The distribution of market shares or stocks of the investment portfolio often is illustrated by pie or doughnut charts. The illustration of multi-market shares and multiple investment portfolios calls for different approaches. The Marimekko chart (also known as Mekko chart, or mosaic plot) comes to the rescue.

E.g., the Marimekko chart simplifies the analysis of the relative market size for the mobile app market and the share of the app platform within the specific market.

A Marimekko chart in Excel 2016

The horizontal axis shows which fraction of the market corresponds to the particular region, and the vertical axis shows the partitioning of the region.

Excel does not have Marimekko chart tools, but you still can create one of your own:

   1.   Create a step Area chart.

   2.   Add the horizontal and vertical separators (vertical lines) to simulate the mosaic (see How to add separators into the Marimekko chart).

   3.   Add labels to the chart (see How to add labels to the Marimekko chart).

For example, for the Global App Market 2018:

The data for Marimekko chart in Excel 2016

To create a step Area chart of the data, do the following:

   1.   Prepare the new data for the chart.

To create a step Area chart, add two copies of values for the same data:

  • the start value (previous value),
  • the end value (current value).

For this example:

The new data for Marimekko chart in Excel 2016

Where, X values are calculated as the width of each data column, including 0 and 100%:

  • the first value (0%),
  • the width of the first data series (percentage of the total for this data series):

    = E4 / SUM (E4:E6), = 71 / (71 + 61 + 13) = 49,

  • the width of the first and second data series (percentage of the total for the data series):

    = (E4 + E5) / SUM (E4:E6), = (71 + 61) / (71 + 61 + 13) = 91,

  • the last value (100%).

   2.   Select a new data range (in this example, B8:D14).

   3.   On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click on the Line dropdown list:

Insert Line or Area Chart in Excel 2016

From the Line dropdown list, select the 100% Stacked Area The 100% Stacked Area Chart in Excel 2016 chart.

Excel creates a little weird area chart for your data:

The new Marimekko chart in Excel 2016

   4.   Customize the horizontal axis:

   4.1.   Do one of the following:

  • Under Chart Tools, on the Design tab, in the Data group, choose Select Data:
    Select Data in Excel 2016
  • Right-click in the chart area and choose Select Data... in the popup menu:
    Select Data in popup menu Excel 2016

   4.2.   In the Select Data Source dialog box, under Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels, click the Edit button:

Select Data Source dialog box in Excel 2016

   4.3.   In the Axis Labels dialog box, choose cells with categories for this axis and click OK several times:

Axis Labels dialog box in Excel 2016

   4.4.   Right-click on the horizontal axis and choose Format Axis... in the popup menu:

Format Axes in popup Excel 2016

   4.5.   On the Format Axis pane, on the Axis Options tab, in the Axis Options section:

  • Under Axis Type, select the Date axis radio button,
  • Under Bounds, be sure that:
    • In the Minimum field, the value is the 1st day in Excel:
      • 00-01-00, if you use the date format mm-dd-yy,
      • 01-00-00, if you use the date format dd-mm-yy,
    • In the Maximum field, the value of the 100th day in Excel (the 4th of September):
      • 09-04-00, if you use the date format mm-dd-yy,
      • 04-09-00, if you use the date format dd-mm-yy,
  • Under Units, type 20 days for the Major units:
Format Axis pane in Excel 2016

Excel changes the chart to the step Area chart:

The new step Area chart for Marimekko in Excel 2016

To add the horizontal and vertical separators (lines), to simulate the mosaic, see How to add separators into the Marimekko chart.

Please, disable AdBlock and reload the page to continue

Today, 30% of our visitors use Ad-Block to block ads.We understand your pain with ads, but without ads, we won't be able to provide you with free content soon. If you need our content for work or study, please support our efforts and disable AdBlock for our site. As you will see, we have a lot of helpful information to share.