How to Count Quartiles in Excel

In statistics, quartiles are a method of breaking up a set of numbers into four equal parts. While this concept may seem simple, it actually requires some in-depth calculations to determine the exact numbers that would equally divide the data set, so Excel includes the QUARTILE.EXC function so you don't have to go through the calculations. To use the function, you just need to point it to the data on your spreadsheet, and then determine which quartile you want to calculate.


Open a brand new Microsoft Excel 2010 spreadsheet.


Click on cell "A1" and type in the first value in the data set that you are going to determine the quartiles for. Enter the rest of the data set in the cells down the first column.


Select cell "B1" and type in "=MIN(A:A)" without quotes, then select cell "B5" and type in "=MAX(A:A)" without quotes. This will give you the lower limit and upper limit of the data field, which are commonly displayed with the quartiles.


Click on cell "B2" and enter the following formula, without quotes: "=QUARTILE.EXC(A:A,1)". This will give you the first quartile. Enter the same formula into cell "B3," except change "1" to "2" and you will get the second quartile, or median. Then enter the same formula into cell "B4," but change "1" to "3" and you will get the third quartile.