Read and Interpret Pie Charts

Data can be represented in lots of different ways.

 

One way is with a pie chart.

 

This pie chart shows Year 6's favourite crisp flavours:

 

 

 

Example

There are 150 children in Year 6.

How many children chose chicken?

(Round to the nearest whole number.)

 

 

Answer

We can see from the pie chart that 15% of the children chose chicken.

We know there are 150 Year 6s in total.

We need to find 15% of 150.

 

We can do this in several ways.

Here are two methods:

 

Method 1: Find 1% and multiply by 15

1%: 150 ÷ 100 = 1.5

1.5 x 15 = 22.5

 

Method 2: Find 10% and 5% and add together

10%: 150 ÷ 10 = 15

5%: 15 ÷ 2 = 7.5

15 + 7.5 = 22.5

 

Both methods give you the same answer.

 

I know what you're thinking - how can you have 22.5 children?!

It's just because the percentages have been rounded, so that's why the question told us to round to the nearest whole number:

22.5 rounded to the nearest whole number is 23.

 

The answer is 23.

 

 

Now let's have a go at some more questions together.