Percentile: what it means and how to read it
In the report: percentile — The q-th percentile, q from 0 to 100, fractions allowed (percentile.12.5); computed as in SPSS, like the quartiles. percentile.0.95 is the 0.95th percentile, not the 95th. Without q or with q outside 0…100 the cell is empty and the error is listed under the table.
How to read it
The value below which q percent of the answers lie: percentile.95 = 8.45 means that 95% of the answers are 8.45 or lower. Handy for cut-offs such as the top 5%.
In plain words
A teacher timed 100 pupils on a puzzle. She wanted a time limit that almost everyone can meet, so she asked for percentile.95 and got 8.45 minutes. That means 95 of the 100 pupils finished in that time or less. Now she can set the limit at 9 minutes and expect that only a few will run out of time. Any spot from 0 to 100 works, even one with a half. Be careful with the dot: percentile.0.95 does not mean 95 out of 100. It asks for a spot near the very bottom, and she would get a time close to the quickest pupil.
How it is computed
The value at the position (n + 1) · q / 100 of the sorted values, interpolated between neighbours (SPSS HAVERAGE)Example
The cell with percentile is selected in each report; point at a label to see its note.
- — the sample data (50 rows) the examples use
- —
=STATS_DESCRIPTIVE(Data!A1:T51, "percentile.95", "/^q/")
Where you see it
STATS_DESCRIPTIVE— Column-wise descriptive statistics with flexible metric selection and optional column filtering.
Related values
- Median absolute deviation — The median of the absolute deviations from the median, without the 1.4826 factor.
- Geometric mean — The n-th root of the product of the values; zero and tiny values are raised to epsilon (Settings), a negative value gives an empty cell.
- Harmonic mean — n divided by the sum of 1/x; zero and tiny values are raised to epsilon (Settings), a negative value gives an empty cell.
- Flatness — The geometric mean of the values as they are divided by their arithmetic mean, without epsilon: a zero among the values gives exactly 0; empty when the mean is 0 or a value is negative.
- Spectral flatness — The geometric mean divided by the arithmetic mean of the shares x² / Σ x².
Get it in your sheet
One formula in a cell gives the whole report, Percentile included. ALS Stats is a free add-on for Google Sheets™.
Install ALS Stats from Google Workspace Marketplace (opens in a new tab)