With Excel, your life is a piece of cake when it comes to complex analyses, incredible calculations, and much more. You often use formulas in Excel and one of these complicated formulas is the Coefficient of Variation. Do you know how to calculate CV on Excel?

Let’s find out how you can define the Coefficient of Variation in Excel which simply means a measure of the dispersion of data around its mean. You will find a higher level of variability when you have a higher level of coefficient of variation.

CV is more like splitting the standard deviation by the mean of the data. Typically, the way you spread values in a dataset relative to the mean is calculated as:

CV = σ / μ

In this formula,

σ = It is the standard deviation of the dataset

μ= It is the mean of the dataset

In a nutshell, the CV is simply the ratio between the standard deviation and the mean.

Top Ways to Find Coefficient of Variance in Excel:

To calculate the Coefficient of Variance or CV, you need to find the Standard Deviation for Population or Sample and the Average or Mean. Let’s see how it happens:

How to Calculate CV on Excel?

First, you need to calculate the standard deviation as well as the mean of the given dataset so that you can use it to find the coefficient or variance value.

Below is a simple example to follow:

• In the following dataset, you can notice the height value given in cm of some students. Let’s see how you can find the CV value for the dataset.

• In the first step, you have to find the mean of the dataset by using the AVERAGE function given in Excel. To find the Average, here is the formula:

=AVERAGE(B2:B10)

• Now, let’s calculate the Standard Deviation of the given dataset. To find the standard deviation, you can use the STDEV.P and STDEV.S functions available in Excel. STDEV.P is used for the population and STDEV.S is used for the Sample.

Let’s see how you can use the following formula of Standard Deviation:

=STDEV.P(B2:B10)

• Now, you need to calculate the Coefficient of Variation value and for this, you can divide the standard deviation value by the mean of the given dataset.

Below is the formula for this function:

=(B13/B12)

• In case, the value of CV appears in decimal, here is the procedure to change it in percentage.
• For this procedure, you need to choose the cell in which the CV value is given and now open the Home tab.
• Click on the percentage icon given in the Number menu.

• As you can see the calculation procedure is done in three different steps and this procedure is useful. On the other hand, if you don’t want to use this lengthy procedure, below is another formula you can use to find a similar outcome.

=STDEV.P(B2.B10)/AVERAGE(B2:B10)

To Wrap Up:

Excel always gives you options to sort whatever queries you have in front of you. You can polish your Excel skills only by practicing the formulas and different functions used in solving problems.