Area chart in Power BI Desktop resembles a filled line chart. Like line chart, Area chart are effective in showing trends and comparing data series while it highlights the areas beneath the lines which makes us to easily visualize the cumulative effect of data changes.
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How to Proceed?
Step 1
Launch power BI desktop app and open the new report page and import the data required.
Step 2
Add an Area chart by clicking Insert > Area chart on the Home ribbon, or select the Area chart visual from the Visualizations pane (or the Build a visual menu if On-object Interaction is enabled).
Step 3
Drag the required fields into the appropriate field wells in the Build visual section (or use Add data if On-object Interaction is enabled).
X axis: Represents Year
Y axis: Shows the Number of Olympic Participants
Legend: The Legend identifies the different data series displayed in the chart. In this example, the legend separates participant counts by gender, making it easy to compare trends over time.
Here we are showing Gender wise medal counts by Year
Step 4:
Customizing the appearance of Area chart
You can customize the appearance of the visual. The Area chart provides extensive formatting options, including Title, Legend, Data colors, Data labels, Axes, Gridlines, Plot area, Markers, Lines, Analytics, Background, and other visual properties. Click anywhere on the visual and set the below properties in the Format section.
In this visual, I chose background colour as blue and gave 87% transparency which reduces the intensity of the colour.
Give suitable title for the visual and customize the font size, colour and position of the title.
Chose Colours for the line to show different categories.
To add data labels to the area chart, click on the “Data Labels” section under “Visual”. Here you can choose which data to display in the labels and adjust their position, font, and color.
We can also change the shape and thickness of the line on the chart under the setting Visual--> Line--> Shape. Here for this visual we chose Solid line and thickness of the line as 3px
To Represent the shape of the data points in different style we have options under Visual--> Markers-->Shape
Step 5 Save the visual
Finally, your Area chart is ready. Save the Power BI report to preserve the visual and its formatting.
When to use Area chart?
Area charts can be used to show cumulative data changes over time, showing trends patterns also when we have to compare multiple data series or categories, we use area chart because it shows the series individually with filled areas which makes us clear.
Pros:
- While Area chart fills the area below the line in the chart, we can easily see which data points are above or below the average.
- Area charts are helpful for scenarios like when data series intersect or overlap filled areas make it easy to distinguish overlapping series
Cons:
- Area chart are effective in showing time series data and not suitable for showing other types of data
- Area charts become clumsier when used for large number of data points
Conclusion
Area charts are an effective way to visualize trends, cumulative values, and changes over time. By combining the clarity of a Line chart with filled areas, they help users understand both the direction and magnitude of changes, making them useful for business reporting and time-series analysis.
Useful Information
| Tags | Power BI |
| Useful links | https://powerbidocs.com/2021/03/30/area-chart-in-power-bi/ |
| MS Learn Modules |
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/visuals/power-bi-line-chart |
| Test Your Knowledge | Quiz |
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