ggarange: graphs with different size legend

Question

I am trying to group three different graphs using ggarrange. The graphs are exactly the same, but the legend on the bottom graph is too long. Therefore, I am getting the following figure:

I tried to include to theme(legend.box = "horizontal") in the graph code and use the following for the ggarrange:

ggarrange(plot_sex, plot_ethnicity, plot_disability + 
          rremove("x.text"), 
          labels =  c("A", "B", "C"),
          ncol = 1, nrow = 3,
          legend = "right",
          widths = c(1, 1, 5),
          align = "v")

I want the graphs on the right to be aligned. Can someone help me?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Here is a patchwork solution.

library(tidyverse)
library(patchwork)

# Create plots individually
p1 <- mpg %>%
  ggplot(aes(x = cty, y = hwy, color = manufacturer)) +
  geom_point() +
  theme_bw() +
  labs(x = NULL) +
  theme(axis.text.y = element_blank(),
        legend.position = 'none')

p2 <- mpg %>%
  ggplot(aes(x = cty, y = hwy, color = manufacturer)) +
  geom_point() +
  labs(x = NULL,
       y = NULL) +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_blank(),
        axis.text.y = element_blank(),
        legend.justification = 'left') +  # To left align the top legend
  guides(color = guide_legend(ncol = 2))

p3 <- mpg %>%
  ggplot(aes(x = cty, y = hwy, color = model)) +
  geom_point() +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(legend.position = 'none')

p4 <- mpg %>%
  ggplot(aes(x = cty, y = hwy, color = model)) +
  geom_point() +
  labs(y = NULL) +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(axis.text.y = element_blank()) +
  guides(color = guide_legend(ncol = 3))

# Stitch the individual plots together (will look better on your local machine)
p1 + p2 + p3 + p4 + plot_layout(ncol = 2)

^{Created on 2024-06-27 with reprex v2.1.0}