Did Florence Nightingale actually invent the pie chart?

No. The first published pie chart predates her birth by 19 years. The earliest recorded example of a Pie Chart is by William Playfair in his book 'A statistical breviary', published in 1801. read more

The earliest recorded example of a Pie Chart is by William Playfair in his book 'A statistical breviary', published in 1801. (Playfair is also credited with the invention, in 1786, of the line chart and the bar chart.) Florence Nightingale in fact used Polar Diagrams rather than Pie Charts. read more

In 1857, she invented the pie chart, which helped her disprove the medical assumptions of her day. Using fatality counts from the Crimean War, Nightingale develops a progressive series of statistical diagrams that reveal startling information: most soldiers did not die of their wounds, as reported, but in army hospitals, from diseases related to poor hygiene. read more