How to Use a Percentage Formula in Excel 2013

Excel is a great tool for performing mathematical operations on data that you have entered into your cells. These operations typically occur with the help of a formula, such as this subtraction formula. One of the operations that you can perform on your data is to calculate a percentage of one cell value compared to another. This is accomplished by dividing one number by another number to generate a percentage.

Our tutorial below will show you how to use this formula, as well as how to change the format of the cells containing the percentage so that they display with a % symbol behind them.

Percentage Formula in Excel 2013

The steps in this article were performed in Microsoft Excel 2013, but will work in other versions of Excel as well. Note that we are performing this task with a formula, so the percentage displayed in the chosen cell will change if you modify the cells that are being used to calculate that percentage.

Step 1: Open your spreadsheet in Excel 2013.

Step 2: Click inside the cell where you wish to display the calculated percentage.

Step 3: Type the percentage formula into the cell. The formula is =XX/YY but replace XX with the cell containing the first value for the percentage, then replace YY with the cell containing the second value for the percentage.

Step 4: Click and hold on the bottom-right corner of the cell, then drag it down to select the rest of the cells for which you wish to calculate a percentage. This action applies the entered formula for those additional cells as well, but it updates automatically to calculate the percentages for the cells in each relative row.

Step 5: Select the cells displaying the percentage, then right-click on one of the selected cells and choose the Format Cells option.

Step 6: Select Percentage from the column on the left side of the window, choose the number of decimal places you wish to display, then click the OK button.

You should now see your displayed percentages in the cells.

Would you like to be able to view the formulas that you are using in your cells? Find out how to show formulas in Excel so that you can see the contents of the formula rather than its results.