How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel

Here is a guide on how to calculate the standard deviation in a collection of data.

Excel Instruction

Calculating the Standard Deviation

1.
Enter all the data values into Excel.
2.
Choose an empty cell and enter the Excel command

=STDEV(

3.
Highlight the range of cells containing the data and press Enter. You have now found the standard deviation of the data!

Example 1

The Ukrainian national gymnastics team members Anoushka, Alexandra, Triana, Mirella, Jana and Fiona are all good friends. Anoushka is 167cm tall, Alexandra is 159cm tall, Triana is 162cm tall, Mirella is 155cm tall, Jana is 160cm tall and Fiona is 157cm tall. Find the standard deviation of the girls’ heights.

1.
Enter the heights of the gymnasts in Excel.
2.
Click on an empty cell and write the formula:

=STDEV(

3.
Highlight all the cells containing the gymnasts’ heights and press Enter. You’ll get the following table:

Spreadsheet in Excel presenting height data and standard deviation

With formulas:

Spreadsheet in Excel showing formula for standard deviation

You can now see that the standard deviation of the gymnasts’ heights is 4.2 cm.

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