Statistical

Excel formula for Standard deviation

Measure how spread out a set of values is around the average.

Copy this formula

=STDEV.S(A2:A100)

How the formula works

STDEV.S computes the standard deviation of a sample; STDEV.P is for an entire population. A larger value means more variability. Pair it with AVERAGE to describe a dataset.

Examples

=STDEV.S(Scores)→12.4

Spread of the sample scores.

Other ways to do this

Whole population

=STDEV.P(A2:A100)

Use when the data is the full population.

FAQ

Sample or population — which do I use?

Use STDEV.S when your data is a sample of a larger group; STDEV.P when it's the entire set.

Related formulas

Median value Percentile of a dataset

Functions used

STDEV.S AVERAGE VAR.S

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