0:29The world's 10 richest people, every year since 1987
Business and startups · Bar race
Chart type · Trend
Bar race
Horizontal bars reordering as values change across frames.
How to read it
Bar length is the value at that moment and the order re-sorts as the values change. Watch the overtakes — and watch the axis, which usually rescales as it goes.
Best for
Rankings that changed hands over years — the overtaking is the drama.
When not to use it
The ranking barely changes, which makes the race a slow bar chart.
The common mistake
Letting a growing axis hide the growth. When the scale expands with the data, every bar stays the same length and the trend disappears.
1 bar race video
- 0:29
Related chart types
- LineAn animated line reveal for one or more series.
- AreaA filled trend, optionally stacked or shown as shares of 100%.
- SlopeA two-point before-and-after comparison per item.
- WaterfallStart, contributions, end: each step peels off a running total, and the payoff brackets how far the end landed from the start.
- FunnelA true-width drop-off funnel: a stream of dots spills out at every step, a live counter falls stage by stage, and the leakiest step cracks open at the end.
- ScatterPoints revealed against two axes, with an optional fitted trendline, the gap to it for the story point, and a refit without that point.