How to make your own population pyramid in six simple steps

Step one: Preparing data in ExcelPrepare a table of population data in a spreadsheet. You need a column of age cohorts as well as those of male and female population. Note that you need to have male population data in negative numbers. Also the data you have is population numbers but we are going to produce pyramids for percentage. The percentages are calculated independently for male and female by dividing the number of people belonging to each age cohort by the total number of entire population. We do this by putting a formula into Excel

1. Label the two columns to the right of your data: percentage male and percentage female

2. Type the following formula into the 0-4 cohort row percentage male column VERY CAREFULLY

=((B3/($B$2+$C$2)*100)*-1)

Below is what the different parts of the formula do:

=((B3/($B$2+$C$2)*100)*-1)

It should look like this:

3. Now we do the same for the female percentage column but the equation misses out the *-1 because we want positive values

=(B3/($B$2+$C$2)*100)

Equals tells excel it is a formula not just text or a number

This divides the value in cell B3 (th number aged 0-4) by the tota

population sizT

Timsing by 100 makes the value a percentage

Timsing by -1 makes the value a negative

4. With our two formulae in place we can transpose the formula to the other cohorts and Excel will adjust them accordingly.

Step 2: Selecting the data Select the data field, including the column titles. Don't forget to include data labels! E.g., male, female, etc. I will use the table in percentages. 

Step 3: Insert Chart ... From the draw-down menu Insert, choose the option Chart... A chart wizard will appear. You need to do the following:

1. Standard Types Bar

2. Chart sub-type Clustered Bar 3. Left-click  Next>4. Go through the subsequent steps until

you finish the chart wizard. You can customize your chart if you feel appropriate, of course.

 If you didn't change any of the chart options, you should obtain a chart that looks like the one here. 

Step 4: Arrange the vertical axis. Once you are done with the chart wizard, you will find a crude population pyramid.

1. Move the cursor over the vertical axis.

Clicking holding and dragging the corner of a box with a formula in transposes the information

2. Right-click and choose Format Axix... from the pop-up menu. You will find a dialog box titled Format Axis.

3. Left-click on the Patterns tab and do the following.

o Major tick mark

type Select None.

o Minor tick mark

type Select None.

o Tick mark labels Select Low. 4. Left-click OK to exit.

Step 5: Adjusting the horizontal axis 1. Move the cursor over the horizontal axis. 2. Right-click on it, and select

Format Axis... from the pop-up menu. You will find a dialogue box titled Format Axis.

3. Left-click on the Number tab and do the following:

o Category: Select the Custom option.

o Type: Type in 0;0 in the appropriate text box. (This will take care of the negative numbers on the male-side axis.)

4. Left-click OK to exit.

Step 6: Adjusting the bars Your chart may not appear quite right. Let's adjust the horizontal bars.

1. Move the cursor over to the bars (i.e., data series). 2. Right-click and select Format Data Series... from the pop-up

menu. Either male or female data series will do. A dialogue box will appear that is titled Format Data Series.

3. Left-click on the Options tab and make the following adjustments.

o Overlap: Type 100 in the appropriate text box.

o Gap width Type 0 in the appropriate text box. 4. Left-click  OK to exit.

When you have completed this pyramid labeled it and copied it into WordUse the data on the US census website for China in 2010 to produce another pyramid with different colours

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/informationGateway.php

Click on tables tab

Download the excel file