Plotly Sunburst
An interactive radial hierarchy where the root sits at the center and each ring outward represents one level of nesting, with arc length proportional to a value. Built with Plotly so users can click any segment to zoom into that branch (the chart redraws with the clicked node as
Template details
- chart
- sunburst
- hierarchy
- drill-down
- plotly
When to use this template
This visualization excels at revealing hierarchical part-to-whole relationships, showing how a total value is distributed across multiple nested categories. Analysts use it to identify the largest contributors at each level and to interactively explore specific branches of the hierarchy, understanding their composition in detail. It's ideal for dissecting complex aggregates into their constituent parts.
- Datasets with a clear hierarchical structure (e.g., parent-child relationships).
- Data requiring a quantitative measure to be distributed across categories.
- When needing to compare the relative size of parts within a whole at multiple levels.
- Interactive exploration of hierarchical branches and drill-down into sub-components.
- Categorical fields defining 2-5 levels of nesting for optimal readability.
- Data where the total sum of child values equals the parent's value.