Compute percentiles in SQL for a table too big for a spreadsheet

I need the median and the 90th percentile of a table with ten million rows, and Excel can't even open the file.

IntermediateRead 4 minDoing: 20 to 30 minutes for a first pass, quicker once the query is saved6 steps

What you'll have at the end

A single SQL query that returns the median and a couple of percentiles straight from the full table, with no spreadsheet import.

Before you start

You need

Read access to a SQL table with a numeric column you want summarized, plus a way to run a query against it without pulling the rows into a spreadsheet first.

Not covered

Doesn't cover splitting the percentile out by a group like region or store; that's the same functions with a GROUP BY added on top.

Leans on

6 steps

Where to go next

Pull a fair sample from a huge table for a quick check

for when a rough eyeball of the distribution is enough and you don't need the exact median or 90th percentile at all

Checked 26 Aug 2026

Part of the Descriptive Statistics cookbook