Year Over Year Growth Calculator
Calculate YoY, quarter over quarter and month over month growth for two periods or a whole series
Revenue grew 12.5% year over year
Results
What is Year Over Year Growth?
Year over year (YoY) growth compares a value with the same value one year earlier and expresses the change as a percentage. It is the standard way to report revenue, sales, users and traffic because comparing the same period across years cancels out seasonality: December sales are compared with last December, not with November. This year over year growth calculator also handles quarter over quarter (QoQ) and month over month (MoM) comparisons, and can work through a whole series of periods at once.
Year over year growth formula
The same formula gives quarter over quarter growth with quarters and month over month growth with months. When the prior value is negative, as with a loss, divide by its absolute value so that a shrinking loss shows as growth. When the prior value is zero, percentage growth is undefined.
For a series of periods, the calculator shows each period-over-period change and their simple average. It also shows the compound growth per period, (Last / First)^(1/n) - 1, which is the steadier measure when changes vary a lot. For multi-year compound growth on its own, use the Growth Rate Calculator or the CAGR Calculator.
How to calculate year over year growth in Excel
Put your periods in column A and the values in column B, oldest first, starting in row 1:
- In C2, enter
=(B2-B1)/B1 - Format column C as a percentage (Home → Number → %).
- Drag the formula down column C to get the growth for every period.
If your data is monthly and you want year over year growth, compare each month with the row 12 rows above it rather than the row directly above. In Google Sheets the same formulas work unchanged.
YoY vs. MoM vs. QoQ: which to use
- Year over year (YoY): the best measure of the underlying trend. It removes seasonality and is what annual reports, investors and most news coverage use. It reacts slowly to recent changes.
- Quarter over quarter (QoQ): a middle ground used in quarterly earnings. It shows recent momentum but is affected by seasonal quarters, such as a strong Q4 for retailers.
- Month over month (MoM): the fastest signal, used by startups and for traffic and subscription metrics. It is noisy: months have different numbers of days and trading days, and one-off events move it a lot.
A common approach is to track MoM for day-to-day decisions and report YoY for the big picture. Government statistics agencies publish seasonally adjusted figures so that month-to-month comparisons are meaningful; if your data is seasonal and not adjusted, prefer YoY.
Year over year growth examples
- Annual revenue (YoY): $1,200,000 last year and $1,350,000 this year. (1,350,000 - 1,200,000) / 1,200,000 = 12.5% year over year growth.
- Monthly users (MoM): 40,000 active users in September and 43,000 in October is 7.5% month over month growth.
- Quarterly sales decline (QoQ): $500,000 in Q2 and $460,000 in Q3 is a -8% quarter over quarter change.
- A series of years: 100,000, 108,000, 117,000, 112,000 and 126,000 give yearly changes of 8%, 8.3%, -4.3% and 12.5%. The average is 6.1% a year and the compound rate is 5.9%. Paste these values into the multiple-periods mode to see the table and chart.
To project revenue forward from a growth rate, use the Revenue Growth Calculator. To break sales growth into price and volume, use the Sales Growth Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate year over year growth?
Subtract last year's value from this year's value, divide by last year's value and multiply by 100. Revenue of $112,500 this year against $100,000 last year is (112,500 - 100,000) / 100,000 × 100 = 12.5% year over year growth.
What is the Excel formula for year over year growth?
With last year's value in B1 and this year's in B2, use =(B2-B1)/B1 and format the cell as a percentage. =B2/B1-1 gives the same result. To avoid a #DIV/0! error when last year was zero, use =IF(B1=0,"n/a",(B2-B1)/ABS(B1)).
Is year on year the same as year over year?
Yes. Year on year (YoY), year over year and year to year growth all mean the same thing: the percentage change between a value and the same value one year earlier. "Year on year" is more common in British English.
How do you calculate month over month growth?
Use the same formula with months: (this month - last month) / last month × 100. Going from 40,000 to 43,000 users is 7.5% month over month growth. Because months are affected by seasonality and different numbers of days, compare month over month for short-term momentum and year over year for the underlying trend.
Why can't I calculate growth from zero?
Percentage growth divides by the prior value, and dividing by zero is undefined: any increase from zero is infinitely large in percentage terms. This calculator still shows the absolute change, and in the multiple-periods mode it skips that one period when averaging.
Sources
- Corporate Finance Institute - Year over Year (YoY) Analysis
- Microsoft Support - Calculate percentages in Excel
- U.S. Census Bureau - Seasonal Adjustment
Last verified:
Related Calculators
Growth Rate Calculator
Find the growth rate between two values, project future growth, or measure population growth
Revenue Growth Calculator
Project business revenue growth over time
Sales Growth Calculator
Calculate sales unit and revenue growth
CAGR Calculator
Calculate compound annual growth rate for investments
Customer Growth Rate Calculator
Calculate customer acquisition and churn metrics
MRR/ARR Growth Calculator
Calculate monthly and annual recurring revenue growth