SKEW Function in Excel: Is the Data Lopsided?

SKEW Function in Excel: Is the Data Lopsided? 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. SKEW in practice
  5. Where you will use it
  6. Worked example
  7. Mistakes people make
  8. Related functions
  9. Continue learning

SKEW is positive when a long tail stretches to the right — typical for salaries and order values, where a few big ones pull the average above the median.

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Syntax

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

Examples

Example 1

=SKEW(E2:E500)

Above 1 means strongly right-skewed: report the median, not the mean.

SKEW in practice

Where you will use it

  • Are sales lopsided with a few huge days?
  • Income distributions
  • Data shape checks

Worked example

CaseFormulaResult
1=ROUND(SKEW(INDEX($H$1:$N$3,A2,0)),3)2.565
2=ROUND(SKEW(INDEX($H$1:$N$3,A3,0)),3)0
3=ROUND(SKEW(INDEX($H$1:$N$3,A4,0)),3)-2.579

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Reading itPositive = long tail of high values
Few pointsNeeds at least 3

KURT · MEDIAN

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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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