As you work in Excel, it’s very useful to identify the bottom percents of your data. This is a great method that lets you identify values that meet those conditions. Fortunately, this is quite easy to do. Let’s learn how to show the bottom percents of your data in Microsoft Excel.
How to Show the Bottom Percents of Your Data in Excel
Consider a list of data containing a dozen values. You want to visually identify those values that represent the bottom 10%, 25%, or other percentage within the dataset. This analysis could, of course, be performed manually with Excel’s sort features. But thanks to options in the Conditional Formatting dashboard, you can do the work much faster and more efficiently.
To get started, go ahead and click and drag your cursor to highlight your range of values. In this example, the values are contained in cell range A1:A12. Then, find the Home tab on Excel’s ribbon. The ribbon is the menu and controls found at the top of your screen, just above the worksheet.
Click next on the Conditional Formatting dropdown menu. You’ll see an array of options here, grouped into several categories. The subsection you’re looking for here is called Top/Bottom Rules. Hover over it, and you’ll see yet more options displayed.
Since you’re looking for bottom percents in your dataset, the option you need is called Bottom 10%. Go ahead and click on it, and Excel will display the New Formatting Rule menu. Notice that it defaults to 10%, but you can easily adjust this value to fit your needs. Here, change it to 25%, then click OK.
Excel will highlight the values in your dataset that represent the bottom 25% of the data: 25, 43, and 55.
As you can see, it’s easy to show the bottom percents of your data in Microsoft Excel.
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