How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel

This wikiHow teaches you how to find the standard deviation of a set of data in Microsoft Excel.

Steps

  1. Image titled Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel Step 1
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    Open Microsoft Excel. Click or double-click the Microsoft Excel app icon, which resembles a white "X" on a dark-green background. The Excel launch page will open.
    • If you have an Excel document which contains the data you want to use, double-click the document to open it in Excel, then skip ahead to the "Click a blank cell" step.
  2. Image titled Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel Step 2
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    Click Blank Workbook. It's in the upper-left side of the Excel launch page.
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  3. Image titled Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel Step 3
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    Enter the values you want to use. Pick a column in which you want to enter your data, then type each data value into individual cells in that column.
    • For example, if you select column "A" as the area in which to enter your data, you might type a number into cell A1, cell A2, cell A3, and so on.
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    Click a blank cell. This should be the cell in which you want to display the standard deviation value. Doing so selects the cell.
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    Type in the standard deviation formula. The formula you'll type into the empty cell is =STDEV.P( ) where "P" stands for "Population". Population standard deviation takes into account all of your data points (N).[1]
    • If you want to find the "Sample" standard deviation, you'll instead type in =STDEV.S( ) here. Sample standard deviation takes into account one less value than the number of data points you have (N-1).
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    Add your value range. In between the parentheses, type in the letter and number of the cell containing your first piece of data, type in a colon (:), and type in the letter and number of the last data cell.
    • For example, if you entered your data in column "A" from rows 1 through 10, you would have =STDEV.P(A1:A10) typed here.
    • If you just want to display the standard deviation of the value of a few scattered cells such as A1, B3, and C5, you can type the cell names separated by commas (e.g., =STDEV.P(A1,B3,C5)) instead.
  7. Image titled Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel Step 7
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    Press ↵ Enter. This will prompt Excel to execute the formula, thus displaying the standard deviation of your selected cells in the formula's cell.
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Community Q&A

  • Question
    How do I use Excel to calculate 2 standard deviations?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    Use =STDEV(), and put your range of values in the parentheses. This can be 2 cells or 2 values (numbers).
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Warnings

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References

  1. ↑ https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probability/summarizing-quantitative-data/variance-standard-deviation-sample/a/population-and-sample-standard-deviation-review

About This Article

Jack Lloyd
Written by:
Jack Lloyd
wikiHow Technology Writer
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jack Lloyd. Jack Lloyd is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. He has over two years of experience writing and editing technology-related articles. He is technology enthusiast and an English teacher. This article has been viewed 426,467 times.
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Co-authors: 7
Updated: November 6, 2020
Views: 426,467
Categories: Microsoft Excel
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