How to calculate each row as a percentage of the total
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 ✓ Verified in Google Sheets (2026-08-30)Show what share of the grand total each value represents.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =B2/SUM($B$2:$B$6) | Lock the total range with $ so it stays fixed when you drag. Format as %. |
| Google Sheets | =B2/SUM($B$2:$B$6) | Identical. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =B2/SUM($B$2:$B$6) | Identical. |
How it works
Divide each value by the sum of the whole range, keeping the range absolute ($) so it does not shift as you fill down. 25 out of a total of 100 is 0.25 = 25%.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =B2/SUM($B$2:$B$4) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 0.25 — exactly the expected result. We then ran the same formulas in Google Sheets, executed 2026-08-30: a formula-only workbook goes into Google Drive, which converts it to a Sheet and recalculates every formula with Google’s own engine, and comes back out as .xlsx carrying the values Google computed. It returned 0.25 for the worked example, the same value LibreOffice produced. Both engines’ numbers on this page are executed results. The Excel formula follows Microsoft’s official documented syntax — we do not run Excel.
Functions used
SUM — see full Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice compatibility for each.
Related recipes
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- How to make a running (cumulative) total
- How to sum a column
- How to sum a column that contains errors