Year-Over-Year Growth Formula: Calculate YoY % in Excel
Summary
Year-over-year growth = (This period − Same period last year) ÷ Same period last year × 100. Comparing to the same month last year removes seasonality. A restaurant group that sold $454,500 in October 2026 versus $428,000 in October 2025 grew 6.2% YoY.
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Year-over-year (YoY) growth formula
YoY growth % = (Current period value − Prior-year period value) ÷ Prior-year period value × 100- Current period value: The metric for the latest period, such as October 2026 sales.
- Prior-year period value: The same metric for the matching period one year earlier, such as October 2025 sales.
How to calculate year-over-year (YoY) growth in Excel and Google Sheets
Excel, using the cells in the worked example below:
=(SUM(C2:C4)-SUM(B2:B4))/SUM(B2:B4)Worked example
A three-location restaurant group compares October sales with last October to see whether a new airport unit is masking weakness elsewhere.
| Location | Oct 2025 | Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown | $186,400 | $201,300 |
| Riverside | $142,900 | $131,800 |
| Airport | $98,700 | $121,400 |
- Total October 2025 = $428,000; total October 2026 = $454,500.
- Increase = 454,500 − 428,000 = $26,500, and group YoY = 26,500 ÷ 428,000 = 6.2%.
- By location, put =(C2-B2)/B2 in D2 and fill down: Downtown +8.0%, Riverside −7.8%, Airport +23.0%.
- Without Airport, the other two grew (333,100 − 329,300) ÷ 329,300 = 1.2%, so most of the group's growth comes from one site.
Result: 6.2% year-over-year growth for the group
How to interpret year-over-year (YoY) growth
YoY is the cleanest way to read growth in seasonal businesses, because October is compared with October rather than September. It still carries calendar noise: a month with one extra weekend, a holiday that moved, or a closure last year can shift YoY by several points. For restaurants and retail, compare like-for-like (same-store) growth separately from total growth, since new locations inflate the total. If last year's number was unusually low or high, YoY says more about last year than about this one.
Common mistakes
- Averaging location-level YoY percentages. The mean of 8.0%, −7.8% and 23.0% is 7.7%, not the group's 6.2%; always divide totals.
- Dividing by a negative or zero base. YoY on a loss that shrank from −$50k to −$20k is not '+60%'; report the absolute change instead.
- Comparing different day counts or trading days. Adjust or compare weekday-aligned periods for daily businesses.
- Including new locations in a 'growth' story. Report same-store growth separately.
Calculate year-over-year (YoY) growth with Better Analyst
Connect your data or upload a spreadsheet, then ask in plain English. Better Analyst writes and runs the calculation and shows the steps, so you can check the number.
- “Show year-over-year sales growth by location and month for the last 24 months.”
- “Calculate same-store YoY growth, excluding locations opened in the last 12 months.”
- “Compare organic sessions year over year by channel from GA4.”
Usually calculated from: Google Sheets, Google Analytics, Google BigQuery, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, MySQL.
Further reading
Frequently asked questions
What is the Excel formula for year-over-year growth?
How is YoY different from month-over-month growth?
How do I calculate YoY growth over several years?
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