You can use the following formulas to find the most frequently occurring value in a list in Excel:
Method 1: Find Most Frequently Occurring Number
=MODE.MULT(A2:A11)
Method 2: Find Most Frequently Occurring Text
=INDEX(A2:A11,MODE.MULT(MATCH(A2:A11,A2:A11,0)))
Both methods use the MODE.MULT function, which will return multiple values if there are multiple values that occur most frequently.
The following examples show how to use each method in practice.
Example 1: Find Most Frequently Occurring Number in Excel
Suppose we have the following list of numbers in Excel:
We can use the following formula to find the most frequently occurring number in the list:
=MODE.MULT(A2:A11)
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
The formula returns two numbers: 4 and 8.
These are the two numbers that occur most frequently in the list.
Example 2: Find Most Frequently Occurring Text in Excel
Suppose we have the following list of cities in Excel:
We can use the following formula to find the most frequently occurring city name(s) in the list:
=INDEX(A2:A11,MODE.MULT(MATCH(A2:A11,A2:A11,0)))
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
The formula returns the text Houston.
This is the text that occurs most frequently in the list.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials offer additional information on how to count frequencies in Excel:
How to Create a Frequency Distribution in Excel
How to Calculate Relative Frequency in Excel
How to Calculate Cumulative Frequency in Excel
