Drawing a Tornado Chart in Excel

The following article provides a detailed guide on how to draw a tornado chart in Excel.

Step 1: Draw the initial chart in a horizontal layout:

Step 2: Select the Male parameter -> Right-click and choose Format Data Series to customize the format for male data.

Step 3: The Format Data Series dialog box appears in the Series options section, select Secondary Axis.

After selecting Secondary Axis, the chart takes the following shape:

Step 4: Select the X-axis (horizontal axis showing the proportion values) -> Right-click and choose Format Axis.

Step 5: The dialog box appears in the Bounds section under:

- Minimum: Input -100.

- Maximum: Input 100.

- Major: Input 25.

- Minor: Set to Auto mode.

After selecting, the chart takes the following shape:

Step 6: Continue selecting the upper horizontal axis -> right-click and choose Format Axis.

Step 7: In the Bounds section, enter the parameters as shown in the diagram:

Move the mouse pointer downwards and check the box next to Values in reverse order.

After selecting, the chart appears as follows:

Step 8: Next, format to remove negative values on the X-axis. Right-click on the X-axis (one of the two axes) -> Select Format Axis.

Step 9: In the Number section under Category, choose Custom; in the Format Code section, enter 0; 0 -> click Add. In this example, there are no units, but if you have percentages, enter 0%;0%.

After selecting, the X-axis no longer has negative values. So, the tornado chart looks like this: Values of the same type are grouped on one side of the graph. By looking at the chart, you can immediately compare the gender ratios between blocks.

In all grade levels, the proportion of female students exceeds that of male students, with Grade 1 having the highest proportion of female students.

Above is a detailed guide on how to draw a tornado chart. Hope it helps you apply it to compare data visually and quickly.

Wishing you all success!