Creating Population Pyramids Using Microsoft Excel

GEOG 151 Human Geography (Section 02), Fall 2018

Developed by Dr. Enru Wang

Population pyramids are a graphic tool used in demography to show the age and
sex structure of a population. This document will show how to make a population
pyramid in Excel 2013. **Note: If you use other versions of Excel, the user interface
(Excel menu bars) may be slightly different. Be patient and explore! If you really
cannot figure out, let Dr. Wang know.

Getting data
The U.S. Census Bureau’s website as well as its American Factfinder page is very
useful for finding age-sex data at the national, state and county levels. In this
assignment, data have been made available in an excel file – you can download
the data file from the same area where you find the assignment on the
Blackboard course website.

Preparing the data

When people create a population pyramid, they could use either population
numbers or percentage of population in each age cohort. In this exercise, we will
use percentage.

Suppose that you have the following data that have been input into an Excel
spreadsheet (note: this is NOT the actual data set that you will use). The first step
will be to calculate percentage for male and female population by age cohort
(see next page)

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 2. Click the AutoSum
button

1. Select all data cells for male

population
You will see the sum or total of male population after Step 2. Do the same for female population.

3. By typing in this formula, you will get the total

population by adding up the value of total
male population (stored in cell B23) and the
value of total female population (stored in
cell D23)
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4. Type in the following formula in cell C2. You are
dividing the value in cell B2 (male population under 5
years) by the value of total population (stored in cell 6. Notice the little square at the lower right corner of
B24). Please note that $ signs are used to lock in the cell C2. Point your mouse to it, press left button of
cell references (that is, you use the same value in B24 the mouse, hold and drag it down until cell C22
when you calculate for other cells)
5. Press Enter, then you see the value 4.78

7. Select those cells in Columns A, C and E. Copy and paste them

to a new area (or a new worksheet) so that those numbers are
next to each other
8. Change decimal places from 2 to 1 for data in the Percent Male &
This is what you will see after Step 6. You have Percent Female columns (when the cells are selected, right click,
calculated percentages for male population of each select Format Cell, then select Number under Category)
age cohort! Do the same for female population.

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 9. By convention, in population pyramids
males are on the left-hand side of the
pyramid. In order for this to occur, the male
values must be negative.
This can be done in one of two ways: either
manually changing each value by placing a
negative sign in front of each value or by
using the formula option in Excel to
multiply each value by negative one. Once
you apply this formula to the first cell you
can drag and copy it to the other cells.

10. Then replace the original values with the

newly computed ones. To ensure that the
proper values are copied, use the paste
option and then click Values.

Creating the Pyramid

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Now, you are ready to create a pyramid!

2. Select
the
3. Select Bar
Insert
Tab
4. Select Stacked Bar

1. Now that the table is

set up properly.
Select the table

5. The chart by default will be

created on the page with the
data. The chart can edited on
this page or moved to a separate
sheet and be edited there

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 Formatting the Pyramid (steps on this page were recently revised in Excel 2016)

1. Click the vertical axis of the chart

area and have it selected
2. Select Axis
Options

3. Select Labels

4. Change Label Position from

Next to Axis to Low. Close
the Format Axis panel

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 If you use Excel 2010 or Excel 2007, here is how to bring up the Format Axis Panel.

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After step 4, a Format Axis window will

pop up, change the Axis Labels option
from Next to Axis to Low. Close the
Format Axis window

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 5. We made the values for males negative to ensure
that these are graphed on the left-side. The
horizontal axis is now labeled with negative values,
but they are confusing.

To fix that, point to any number on the horizontal axis,

and double click, that will bring up the Format Axis
panel again that you just saw.

6. Select NUMBER, then type in 0;0

into the Format Code text box, click
Add (note: the default separator
between the two 0 is a comma, you
need to change it to a semicolon)

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7. Before you close Format Axis panel,
select Axis Options, then change
Major Unit from 2 to 1 (if it’s not 1
already). Close Format Axis panel

8. The next step is to reduce the gap between

each bar. This is done by right-clicking on the
(chart) data series (right-clicking on the bars,
either male or female). Select Format Data Series
option, this will bring up the Format Data Pint
panel

9. Change the map

width to 0%

It now looks like a population

pyramid but setting the gap width
to 0 makes it difficult to distinguish
between each bar

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 11. Select the Fill & Line tab on
the Format Data Series panel

10. Select orange bars for female

population (point to that area and
click once)

12. Select BORDERS, and then

the Solid line option. Set Color
to Black and Width to 1

13. Repeat Steps 10-12 for Male population, and

close the Format Data Series panel

15. Change the title for the chart. Point to the text box and click once, the text box will be
selected. Click one more time, you will see cursor blinking inside the text box and you can
now edit the text by giving a title such as “Population Pyramid of xxx in Year yyy”. “xxx”
means the name of the place or country; yyy means year.

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 16. If axis titles are not automatically added, we need
to add them. select the DESIGN Tab (appears after
the Chart area is selected)
If axis titles have been added, skip to Step 18
17. Select Add Chart Element,
then Axis Titles, and then
Primary Horizontal

18. Change to Population (%)

19. Add title for vertical axis (Age)

You can change the font size for titles

20. You can also revise legend. For instance, you can
remove “Percent” (go to the top row of the data table to
make change, and the legend will change accordingly).
You can also move the legend to a different place

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Here it is! This is how your final product looks like!

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