Practical guides ↗

Excel · Data preparation

Count categories with a PivotTable

Find how many records fall in each category.

3 min readScope: Microsoft 365 / Desktop

Try it in three steps

  1. Select a tidy table with a header for every column.
  2. Create a PivotTable from Insert.
  3. Place the category in rows and a populated record ID in values; verify Count is selected.

How to read the output

Example: Student counts by transport mode. Compare the total with the source record count.

Test your understanding.

True or false?

Sum and Count always give the same result in a participant summary table.

Related concepts

Official source

Excel · Documentation ↗

Documentation checked: . Steps are based on official documentation and have not been tested in the application. Menu names may differ by version and interface language.