Love it or loathe it, Microsoft Excel is a staple in homes and businesses all over the world. Whether it’s a complex business sheet or a simple home to do task, people use spreadsheets for all sorts of reasons and Microsoft’s program has been the go to for some time.
But how many people use it? How many know how to use it? And how is it handling hot competition from the likes of Google Sheets? We take a look in this compilation of Microsoft Excel Statistics for 2022.
Key Facts, Figures and Statistics
Alright, so you don’t want to read reams. Here are the key statistics, with more information and sources within:
- There are a whopping 1.1 billion people using Microsoft’s Productivity Services, which includes Microsoft Excel
- In other words, more than 1 in 8 people on the planet uses Excel
- Office users typically spend more than a third of their time using Excel
- Most office workers, despite spending plenty of time using Excel, haven’t ever received any formal training in it
How Many People Use Microsoft Excel?
1.1 billion people use Microsoft’s “productivity services,” as they now refer to them. It’s impossible to say how many of those use Excel specifically but as it is a part of the suite,
They released a figure of 30 million Excel users in 1996, which means its user base (assuming all productivity services users use the Excel element) has grown by around 36x in the last 36 years.
Microsoft Excel in the Workplace
A recent study by Acuity Training found:
- Office workers spend 38% of their time using Excel
- Despite this, over half have never received any formal training
Microsoft Excel Skills
The same study asked people to rate their own Excel Skills and found:
- Only 6% of office workers would describe themselves as “Expert” level in terms of their Microsoft Excel skills
- Over half describe themselves as “Intermediate”
The study also found that fewer than 60% of those who claim to spend 80% to 100% of their time using Excel
Demand for Training
We took a little peek in kwfinder.com to get an estimate as to how many people are searching for help and training in Excel in good old Google!
Here are the numbers:
| Search Query | Searches Per Month in Google Globally | Searches/Month in Google UK |
| Excel training | 15400 | 1800 |
| Excel courses | 27200 | 4400 |
In other words, 27,200 globally (4,400 in the UK) head to Google to look for “excel courses” each month.
On top of that, there are thousands of searches in the UK each month for variant phrases too, including:
- microsoft excel training (910 searches per month in Google UK according to kwfinder.com
- advanced excel course (730)
Excel vs Google Sheets vs Numbers
Excel, at one point, seemingly had little by way of competition.
Now Google Sheets and Apple’s own Numbers alternatives are proving popular.
A whopping 2 billion people access Google Suite tools each month (including Sheets, but much like with Microsoft Productivity usage statistics, we don’t have a number specifically pertaining to the spreadsheet application).
At the time of writing, no public user numbers are available for Numbers (but we would assume the userbase is considerably lower than Excel just on the basis of the fact it’s only available on Apple products alone).
Excel: Love it or Loathe it?
Personally, I love it and loathe it in equal measure.
But let’s take a look at kwfinder.com to get the take of the great searching public!
- 1,700 people globally per month search “I love Excel”
- Just 220 search “I hate excel”
So while that’s the least scientific way of settling the love or loathe debate, we’re calling it – people love Excel.
