When to use COUNT vs SUM vs COUNTA vs COUNTBLANK vs COUNTIF

Many people get confused about how and when to use some of the basic Excel functions. For example, when do you use SUM and when do you use COUNT?

In a moment I’ll tackle that specific question.

Then I'll bring 3 other COUNT functions into the mix - COUNTA, COUNTBLANK and COUNTIF and show you where you would use each one.

1. What is the difference between SUM and COUNT?

Very simply, SUM calculates a total for a number of cells or values, so it’s answering the question: HOW MUCH? Or, WHAT IS THE TOTAL?

COUNT tells you HOW MANY cells meet a certain condition.

Consider the following data:

Figure 01: SUM vs COUNT

Cell A6 uses a SUM function to add up the values in cells A1 to A5.

Cell C6 uses a COUNT function to find how many cells in the range C1 to C5 contain numbers. The COUNT function ignores blank cells or cells that contain text or symbols.

2. Introducing COUNTA, COUNTBLANK and COUNTIF

There are number of other functions available in Excel. Heres a quick summary of what they do, followed by an example of each.

COUNT counts how many cells in a range contain numeric data (numbers).
COUNTA counts how many populated cells in a range (i.e. not blank).
COUNTBLANK counts how many blank cells in a range.
COUNTIF counts how many cells in a range meet a certain condition.

Consider the following data:

Figure 02: Sales made by the sales team

Here’s the results for each formula:

=COUNT(B2:B11)

Answer = 5.

=COUNTA(B2:B11)

Answer = 7.

=COUNTBLANK(B2:B11)

Answer = 3.

There is no single function that tells you the number of text cells but you can work it out with this formula:

=COUNTA(B2:B11) - COUNT(B2:B11)

3. The COUNTIF function

To demonstrate the COUNTIF function, consider the following data:

Figure 03: A table showing stats for some trades people

The COUNTIF function needs 2 bits of information - the range of cells you are looking at and what it is that you’re checking for. The criteria is always encapsulated in double quotation marks (“) and is not case sensitive.

To find how many tradespeople drive a Toyota:

=COUNTIF(C2:C23,"Toyota")

To find how many plumbers there are:

=COUNTIF(D2:D23,"Plumber")

To find how many tradespeople charge more than $70 per hour:

=COUNTIF(E2:E23,">70")

To find how many of the tradesmen’s names start in the last half of the alphabet:

=COUNTIF(B2:B23,">M")

4. Watch the video (over the shoulder demo)

5. What next?

I hope you found plenty of value in this post. I'd love to hear your biggest takeaway in the comments below together with any questions you may have.

Have a fantastic day.

About the author

Jason Morrell

Jason Morrell is a professional trainer, consultant and course creator who lives on the glorious Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

He helps people of all levels unleash and leverage the power contained within Microsoft Office by delivering training, troubleshooting services and taking on client projects. He loves to simplify tricky concepts and provide helpful, proven, actionable advice that can be implemented for quick results.

Purely for amusement he sometimes talks about himself in the third person.

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help me a lot, thank u so much

Jason Morrell says:

31 May, 2023 at 1:59 pm

You’re welcome Zhou.

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It appears double quotation marks are not needed if the criterion is a number in the COUNTIF function.

Jason Morrell says:

12 January, 2022 at 6:19 am

Hi Nick. Thank you for taking the time to comment. Yes, it’s true that you don’t need the enclosing quote marks if you are looking to match on an exact number. This is because ‘=’ is implied. For any other comparison (>, >=, <, <=, <>) the expression must be enclosed in double quote marks.

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