How to Use PERCENTILE.EXC in Excel

PERCENTILE.EXC estimates percentiles from a small sample by excluding the extremes. Learn when to use it instead of INC.

You will learn to

• Estimate a low percentile from a sample with PERCENTILE.EXC
• Compare the EXC and INC results
• Take an EXC percentile of one group

How it works

PERCENTILE.EXC and PERCENTILE.INC both interpolate between sorted values, but they place the percentiles differently. EXC treats your data as a sample from a larger population, so it never assumes your smallest value is the 0th percentile — the true minimum is probably lower. With n values it only accepts k between 1/(n+1) and n/(n+1); anything outside returns #NUM!.

Use EXC when estimating population percentiles from a small sample (lab tests, pilot studies); it matches the default in many statistics packages. Use INC for describing the data you actually have.

=PERCENTILE.EXC(C2:C11,0.1)