How to Calculate Average Percentage Change in Excel (3 Ways)

While working in Excel, you might need to calculate the average percentage change in a series of data. For example, you have an Excel worksheet with the sales number for every month of the year. Now, you want to calculate the percentage change in sales between the successive two months to find out if the business is growing or declining. Or, you can also use a specific month as the reference and calculate the average percentage change in sales between that month and other months of the year. In this tutorial, I will show you how to calculate the average percentage change in Excel.

How to Calculate Average Percentage Change in Excel: 3 Simple Ways

Let’s assume a scenario where we are working with the sales volumes of the first 6 months of the year of a shop. We have the Month, Sales Volume, and Monthly Percentage Change in the worksheet. Now, we will calculate the monthly average percentage change in sales between 2 consecutive months. And also calculate the change in sales between January and every other month. The image below shows the worksheet that we are going to work with.

1. Calculate Average Percentage Change Using Formula

We can use the formula for average percent change to calculate the change in sales between two consecutive months. The formula for percent change is like below.

And formula below is for calculating the average percentage change.

Steps:

• First, we will write the below formula in cell D6 to calculate the percentage changes in Sales Volume between the months of January and February.

• Upon pressing ENTER, we will now see the percentage change in Sales Volume between the months of January and February.

• Drag the Fill Handle of cell D6 to apply the formula to the rest of the cells.

• Finally, we will see the percentage change in Sales Volume between each month and the preceding month.

• Select all the cells with values under the Monthly Percentage Change column. Then click on the Decrease Decimal button several times from the Number under the Home tab. Each time we click on this button, it will decrease the decimal by one place.

• Now, we will see that each cell in the Monthly Percentage Change is now decreased to 2 decimal points.

• Now, we will calculate the average percentage change using all the monthly percentage changes. Write down the below formula in cell D12.

• Upon pressing ENTER, we will now see the average percentage change in Sales Volume for all the sales volumes for the 6 months.

Read More: How to Calculate Percentage Increase Between Three Numbers in Excel

2. Apply Percent Format to Calculate Average Percentage Change

We can also use the Percent format to calculate the average percentage change.

Steps:

• First, we will click on the Percent Style button several times from the Number under the Home tab. It will change our numbers into percentages.

• Then, we will write the below formula in cell D6.

• Upon pressing ENTER, we will now see the percentage change in Sales Volume between the months of January and February.

• Now, we will drag the fill handle of cell D6 to AutoFill the formula to the rest of the cells.

• Finally, we will see the percentage change in Sales Volume between each month and the preceding month.

• Now, we will calculate the average percentage change using all the monthly percentage changes. Write down the below formula in cell D12.

• Upon pressing ENTER, we will now see the average percentage change in Sales Volume for all the sales volumes for the 6 months.

• Instead of calculating the percentage change in sales between two consecutive months, we can also calculate the change in sales between January and every other month.
• First, we will write the below formula in cell D6.

• Upon pressing ENTER, we will now see the average percentage change in Sales Volume between the month of January and February.

• Now, we will drag the fill handle of cell D6 to apply the formula to the rest of the cells.

• Finally, we will see the percentage change in Sales Volume between January and every other preceding month.
• We will also see the average percentage change in Sales Volume for all the sales volumes of the 6 months.

Read More: Calculate Percentage Difference Between Two Numbers in Excel

3. Run a VBA Code to Calculate Average Percentage Change

If you are familiar with the VBA macro, then you can also use the VBA macro to calculate the average percentage change more efficiently. Just follow the below steps.

Steps:

• We will select Visual Basic from the Developer. We can also press ALT+F11 to open it.

• Now, click on the Insert button and select Module.

• Then, write down the following code in the window that appears.

Sub Average_Percentage_Change()
init_cell = InputBox("Insert the First Cell Reference (Ex. B5)")
num_cells = InputBox("How many values are there in the data range? (Ex. 10)")
result_cell = InputBox("Which cell will show the result? (Ex. D12)")
 init_cell_num = Int(Right(init_cell, 1))
init_cell_letter = Left(init_cell, 1)
final_cell_num = Int(init_cell_num) + Int(num_cells) - 2
Sum = 0
For i = init_cell_num To final_cell_num
    Range("D" & i + 1) = (Range(init_cell_letter & i + 1) - Range(init_cell_letter & i))
    Range("D" & i + 1) = Range("D" & i + 1) / Range(init_cell_letter & i)
     Range("D" & i + 1) = Round((Range("D" & i + 1) * 100), 2)  
        Next
For i = init_cell_num To final_cell_num
Sum = Sum + Range("D" & i + 1)
   Next
Range(result_cell) = Round(Sum / (num_cells - 1), 2)
 End Sub

• Now, click on the Run.

• A window with the prompt Insert the First Cell Reference (Ex. B5) will appear. We will insert cell C5 in the input box as it has the first Sales Volume.

• Another window with the prompt How many values are there in the data range? (Ex. 10) will appear.
• We will insert cell C5 in the input box as have the Sales Volumes for 6 months.

• Finally, the last prompt will appear which will ask you Which cell will show the result? (Ex. D12). We will insert cell D12 in the input box.

• Then, we will see the percentage change in Sales Volume between the consecutive months.
• We will also see the average percentage change in Sales Volume for all the sales volumes of the 6 months in cell D12.

Read More: How to Calculate Year over Year Percentage Change in Excel

Things to Remember

• If you do not have a Developer tab, you can make it visible in File > Option > Customize Ribbon.
• To open the VBA editor press ALT + F11.
• You can press ALT + F8 to bring up the Macro window.

Download Practice Workbook

Download this practice book to exercise the task while you are reading this article.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how to calculate the average percentage change in Excel. I hope from now on you can calculate the average percentage change in Excel very easily. However, if you have any queries or recommendations about this article, please leave a comment below. Have a great day!!!

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