March 14, also written as 3/14, is widely celebrated as π day. This is taken seriously in St. Louis, which is home to the 314 telephone area code.

The FRED Blog team is always eager to celebrate the occasion, so today we offer some pie charts. Now, using pie charts is rarely a good idea. They’re not as informative as other chart types. But today we make an exception and use three of them to track different groups’ relationships with bakery products—including pie, of course!

The chart above shows how much individuals from six age categories spend on bakery products. Imagine the United States as a large family with one member from each age group. If each were spending the same amount on bakery products, we would see a pie with six equal slices. But we do not see that. It seems that, as age increases, so does pie consumption. An advantage to becoming older, perhaps?

The second pie chart shows a different family in which each member belongs to a different income category. Not surprisingly, the poorer cousin spends less on bakery products than the wealthier grandparent. Qu’ils mangent de la brioche!

And our last pie shows the four different Census regions. Here, the differences are more subtle. It looks like bakery products are more appreciated in the Northeast and the West. Or they’re simply more expensive and require greater expenditures. Older data on the price of bread by region seem inconclusive. And, although there shall be enthusiastic pie eating in St. Louis today, we don’t expect that will move the annual Midwest statistic.

How these charts were created: For each, the principle is the same: Search FRED for the first series with, say, “expenditures bakery by age” and take one result. From the “Edit Graph” panel, use the “Add Line” tab to search for and select the next series. Repeat until you have a complete set. Use the “Format” tab to choose graph type “pie.” Bon appétit.

Suggested by Christian Zimmermann.