KURT Function in Excel: How Heavy Are the Tails?

KURT Function in Excel: How Heavy Are the Tails? featured illustration

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

⏱ 2 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

StatisticsLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. KURT in practice
  5. Where you will use it
  6. Worked example
  7. Mistakes people make
  8. Related functions
  9. Continue learning

KURT measures whether data has more extreme values than a normal distribution (positive) or fewer (negative).

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Syntax

=KURT(number1, [number2], ...)
Argument What it means
number1… At least four values.

Examples

Example 1

=KURT(C2:C253)

High kurtosis in daily returns warns of more big shocks than a bell curve predicts.

KURT in practice

Where you will use it

  • Are returns fat-tailed (more extremes)?
  • Quality data with outliers
  • Risk analysis

Worked example

CaseFormulaResult
1=ROUND(KURT(INDEX($H$1:$O$3,A2,0)),3)-0.448
2=ROUND(KURT(INDEX($H$1:$O$3,A3,0)),3)4.391
3=ROUND(KURT(INDEX($H$1:$O$3,A4,0)),3)-1.2

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Reading itAbove 0 = more extremes than normal
Small samplesNeeds at least 4 values

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📎 Practice files for this article

  • 📗
    Practice workbook: Statistics advanced33 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
    ⬇ XLSX · 36 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.

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