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How to apply conditional formatting based on percentile rank in Excel?

Author Sun Last modified

In Excel, calculating percentiles is easy, but have you ever tried applying conditional formatting based on a percentile rank? This tutorial will show you how to quickly highlight cells based on their percentile rank. Specifically, you'll learn how to highlight values that are below the 25th percentile, the point where 25% of the data falls, helping you identify lower-performing values like the lowest scores or sales. Follow the steps to automatically format those values for better visualization!

A screenshot of Excel data with conditional formatting applied based on percentile rank

Conditional formatting based on percentile range

arrow blue right bubble Conditional formatting based on percentile range

1. Select the data you want to apply the conditional formatting, and click Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule. See screenshot:
A screenshot of the Conditional Formatting menu in Excel, highlighting the 'New Rule' option

2. Then in the New Formatting Rule dialog, click Use a formula to determine which cells to format, and enter this formula =F2<=PERCENTILE($F$2:$F$18,0.25) into the Format values where this formula is true textbox. See screenshot:
A screenshot of the 'New Formatting Rule' dialog box in Excel, with a formula entered to apply conditional formatting based on percentile rank

Tip: In the formula, F2 is the first value, F2:F18 is the range of numbers to evaluate, and 0.25 represents the 25th percentile.

3. Click Format, and in the Format Cells dialog, you can change the formatting as you need to format the cells. See screenshot:
A screenshot of the 'Format Cells' dialog box in Excel, where formatting options are selected for conditional formatting

4. Click OK > OK. Now if the values are lower than the 25 percentile of the data set, they will be highlighted automatically. See screenshot:
A screenshot of Excel data where values lower than the 25th percentile are highlighted with conditional formatting

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