How to use PERCENTILE Google Sheets formula?

The syntax for the PERCENTILE formula is =PERCENTILE(data, percentile), it has 2 required parameters.

PERCENTILE

The PERCENTILE function returns the value at a given percentile of a dataset. This can be useful in statistics and data analysis when trying to find the value that corresponds to a certain percentile in a set of data.

How to use PERCENTILE formula?
Examples of using PERCENTILE formula
PERCENTILE formula not working?
Similar formulas to PERCENTILE

Usage

Use the PERCENTILE formula with the syntax shown below, it has 2 required parameters:

=PERCENTILE(data, percentile)

Parameters:

data (required):
The range or array of data containing the values for which you want to find the percentile. The range or array must contain at least one value.
percentile (required):
The percentile at which you want to find the value. This should be a number between 0 and 1, where 0 represents the minimum value in the dataset and 1 represents the maximum value.

Examples

Here are a few example use cases that explain how to use the PERCENTILE formula in Google Sheets.

Find the median value in a dataset

To find the median value (50th percentile) in a dataset, you can use the formula =PERCENTILE(A1:A10, 0.5), assuming the data is in cells A1 to A10.

Find the 90th percentile of a dataset

To find the 90th percentile of a dataset, you can use the formula =PERCENTILE(A1:A10, 0.9), assuming the data is in cells A1 to A10.

Calculate the 25th and 75th percentiles for a box plot

To create a box plot, which shows the distribution of a dataset, you may need to find the 25th and 75th percentiles. You can use the formulas =PERCENTILE(A1:A10, 0.25) and =PERCENTILE(A1:A10, 0.75), assuming the data is in cells A1 to A10.

Common Mistakes

PERCENTILE not working? Here are some common mistakes people make when using the PERCENTILE Google Sheets Formula:

Using an Invalid Percentile Value

The percentile value must be between 0 and 1. If a value outside of this range is used, the PERCENTILE function will return an error.

Including Non-Numeric Values in the Range

The PERCENTILE function ignores non-numeric values in the range. If the range includes text or other non-numeric values, the function may return unexpected results.

The following functions are similar to PERCENTILE or are often used with it in a formula:

QUARTILE
The QUARTILE function in Google Sheets is used to calculate quartiles from a given data set. Quartiles divide a dataset into four equal parts. This function can be used to find the value at a given quartile rank or to calculate quartile ranges.
RANK
The RANK function returns the rank of a specified value within a dataset. The rank of a value is its size relative to other values in the dataset. The function can be used to determine the rank of a single value or an entire dataset. The rank can be calculated in ascending or descending order. This function is commonly used in data analysis to determine the relative position of a value within a set of values.
MEDIAN
The MEDIAN function returns the median (middle) value of a set of numbers. It is commonly used to find the middle value in a range of data points. If the number of data points is even, it returns the average of the two middle values. This function can be useful in statistical analysis and data visualization.
AVERAGE
The AVERAGE function calculates the average (arithmetic mean) of the values passed to it. It is commonly used to find the average of a range of cells containing numerical data.
STDEV
The STDEV function calculates the standard deviation of a set of numbers. It measures the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values from the average (mean) value. It is commonly used in statistics to determine the spread of a data set. The values can be supplied as individual cells, ranges, or constants.

Learn More

You can learn more about the PERCENTILE Google Sheets function on Google Support.