How to Calculate Average and Standard Deviation with Excel 2007

2024 Author: Jason Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-19 22:11

This wikiHow teaches you how to find the mean and standard deviation of a series of numbers/data in Microsoft Excel 2007.

Step

Part 1 of 3: Adding Data

Step 1. Open Microsoft Excel

Click or double-click the Excel icon, which looks like a green “X” on a green and white background.

If you already have an Excel document that contains data, double-click the document to open it in Excel 2007, then move on to the average lookup step

Step 2. Select the box containing the first data point

Single-click the box where you want to add the first data.

• Step 3. Enter data

  Type in a number/data.

  

  Step 4. Press Enter key

  Data or numbers will be entered in the box and the selection cursor will be moved to the next box in the column.

  

  Step 5. Enter the rest of the data

  Type in the data, press the Enter ”, and repeat the process until you finish entering all the data in the same column. This process makes it easy for you to calculate the mean and standard deviation of all data.

  Part 2 of 3: Finding the Average

  

  Step 1. Click an empty box

  After that, the cursor will be placed in the box.

  

  Step 2. Enter the formula for the mean or mean value

  Type =AVERAGE() into the box.

  

  Step 3. Place the cursor between the opening and closing brackets

  You can press the left arrow key to move the cursor or click the space between the two punctuation marks in the text field at the top of the document.

  

  Step 4. Set the data range

  You can enter the range of a data box by typing the first box that contains the data, inserting a colon, and typing the last box that contains the data. For example, if the data series is displayed in the box “ A1" until " A11 ”, type A1:A11 in parentheses.

  • Your final formula should look like this: =AVERAGE(A1:A11)
  • If you want to calculate the average of several records (not all of them), type the name of the box for each record in parentheses and separate them using commas. For example, to find the average value of the data in the box " A1 ”, “ A3", and " A10 ”, type =AVERAGE(A1, A3, A10).

  

  Step 5. Press Enter key

  The formula will be executed and the average value of the selected data will be displayed in the currently selected box.

  Part 3 of 3: Finding the Standard Deviation

  

  Step 1. Click an empty box

  After that, the cursor will be placed in the box.

  

  Step 2. Enter the standard deviation formula

  Type =STDEV() into the box.

  

  Step 3. Place the cursor between the opening and closing brackets

  You can press the left arrow key to move the cursor or click the space between the two punctuation marks in the text field at the top of the document.

  

  Step 4. Set the data range

  You can enter the range of a data box by typing the first box that contains the data, inserting a colon, and typing the last box that contains the data. For example, if the data series is displayed in the box “ A1" until " A11 ”, type A1:A11 in parentheses.

  • The final entered formula will look like this: =STDEV(A1:A11)
  • If you want to calculate the standard deviation of some data (not all of them), type the name of the box for each record in parentheses and separate them using commas. For example, to find the standard deviation of the data " A1 ”, “ A3", and " A10 ”, type =STDEV(A1, A3, A10).

  

  Step 5. Press Enter key

  The formula will be executed and the standard deviation for the selected data will be displayed in the selected box.

  Tips

  • Changes to the value in any of the data boxes will affect the corresponding formula and the final calculation result will be updated automatically.
  • You can use the instructions above for newer versions of Excel (e.g. Excel 2016).