PERCENTILE.INC Function in Excel: Value at a Percentile (e.g. 90th)

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StatisticalLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 2010+

In this article

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

PERCENTILE.INC returns the value below which a given percentage of data falls — for salary bands, delivery-time targets and outliers.

Syntax

=PERCENTILE.INC(array, k)

Argument	What it means
k	0 to 1, e.g. 0.9 for the 90th percentile.

Examples

Example 1

=PERCENTILE.INC(D2:D500, 0.9)

90% of deliveries took this many days or fewer.

Example 2

=PERCENTILE.INC(C2:C200, 0.5)

Same as the median.

PERCENTILE.INC in practice

Where you will use it

• 90th percentile delivery time
• Top 10% salary cut-off
• Benchmarks

Worked example

k	Formula	Result
0.25	=ROUND(PERCENTILE.INC({120,135,128,160,95,140,132},A2),2)	124
0.5	=ROUND(PERCENTILE.INC({120,135,128,160,95,140,132},A3),2)	132
0.9	=ROUND(PERCENTILE.INC({120,135,128,160,95,140,132},A4),2)	148

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

Mistake	What to do instead
Percent as 90	Use 0.9
Interpolation	Results can fall between data points

Related functions

QUARTILE.INC · MEDIAN · PERCENTRANK.INC

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📎 Practice files for this article

• 📗
  Practice workbook: Statistics basics22 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
  ⬇ XLSX · 34 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.