How to Create a Treemap Chart in Excel (Step-by-Step)
Treemaps are a native Excel chart type available since Excel 2016, found under Insert → Hierarchy Charts. They display part-to-whole relationships using nested rectangles — the area of each rectangle is proportional to its value. Excel supports both flat treemaps (one level) and hierarchical treemaps (parent and child categories) from the same Insert menu.
What is a treemap in Excel?
A treemap in Excel displays hierarchical or categorical data as nested rectangles. Each rectangle's area is proportional to its value — larger rectangles represent larger values. For flat treemaps, each row in your data becomes one rectangle. For hierarchical treemaps, Excel groups subcategories under parent branches and uses banner labels to identify each group. Treemaps are particularly effective for showing composition: budget breakdowns, portfolio allocations, file system usage, and category distributions with many items.
6 steps to make a treemap in Excel
Prepare your data
For a flat treemap: two columns — label and value. For a hierarchical treemap: three columns — parent category, child label, and value. Excel reads the column order to determine hierarchy: the leftmost text column becomes the top-level grouping. Values must be positive — treemaps do not support negative values.
Select your data range
Click and drag to select all columns including headers. Include all rows you want in the chart — blank rows are excluded automatically.
Insert the treemap
Go to Insert → Charts → click Insert Hierarchy Chart (the icon shows nested rectangles) → Treemap. Excel creates the chart immediately with auto-sized rectangles sorted by value within each group.
Customize branch colors
In a hierarchical treemap, each parent category gets its own color. To change a branch: click anywhere in the chart (once), then click a rectangle in the branch you want to recolor (second click selects that group). Format → Fill → choose your color. All rectangles in that branch update together.
Adjust label display
Right-click the chart → Format Data Labels. Options: Category Name (shows label text inside each rectangle), Value (shows the number), Percentage (shows % of total). For small rectangles, labels may not fit — reduce font size or remove labels for small items. In hierarchical treemaps, parent categories appear as banner labels at the top of each branch group.
Resize and finalize
Drag the chart edges to make it wider — treemaps read better in a 16:9 or wider aspect ratio. Remove the legend if your rectangles already have visible labels. Add a title via Chart Elements → Chart Title.
When to use a treemap in Excel
Budget and expense breakdowns
Show how a total budget is distributed across departments, projects, or cost categories. Nested treemaps reveal both department totals and individual line items in one view.
Sales by product and category
Hierarchical treemaps show category-level and SKU-level revenue in one chart. Spot which categories dominate and which products within a category are underperforming.
Portfolio or asset allocation
Display holdings by asset class at the top level and individual positions at the child level. Rectangle size immediately communicates concentration and weight.
Survey results with many categories
When you have more than 10 categories, a bar chart becomes crowded. A treemap handles 20–50 categories cleanly, with small items visually grouped at the edges.
Components of a treemap in Excel
Rectangles
Each rectangle represents one data point. Area is proportional to value — larger values get larger rectangles. Excel arranges them to fill the chart area efficiently.
Branch groups
In hierarchical treemaps, rectangles belonging to the same parent category are visually grouped and share a color family.
Banner labels
In hierarchical treemaps, the parent category name appears as a label at the top of its branch group. These are separate from the child rectangle labels.
Color coding
Each top-level parent category gets a distinct color. Child rectangles inherit a shade of their parent's color. In flat treemaps, all rectangles are typically the same color unless you manually change individual items.
Frequently Asked Questions
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