Skew function

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the SKEW function in Microsoft Excel.

Description

Returns the skewness of a distribution. Skewness characterizes the degree of asymmetry of a distribution around its mean. Positive skewness indicates a distribution with an asymmetric tail extending toward more positive values. Negative skewness indicates a distribution with an asymmetric tail extending toward more negative values.

Syntax

SKEW(number1, [number2], ...)

The SKEW function syntax has the following arguments:

• Number1, number2, ...    Number1 is required, subsequent numbers are optional. 1 to 255 arguments for which you want to calculate skewness. You can also use a single array or a reference to an array instead of arguments separated by commas.

Remarks

• Arguments can either be numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers.

• Logical values and text representations of numbers that you type directly into the list of arguments are counted.

• If an array or reference argument contains text, logical values, or empty cells, those values are ignored; however, cells with the value zero are included.

• Arguments that are error values or text that cannot be translated into numbers cause errors.

• If there are fewer than three data points, or the sample standard deviation is zero, SKEW returns the #DIV/0! error value.

• The equation for skewness is defined as:

  

Example

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Data
3
4
5
2
3
4
5
6
4
7
Formula	Description	Result
=SKEW(A2:A11)	Skewness of a distribution of the data set in A2:A11.	0.359543