Distinct Count in Excel Pivot Table

When you create a pivot table to summarize data, Excel automatically creates sums and counts for the fields that you add to the Values area. In addition, you might want to see a distinct count (unique count) for some fields, such as:

The number of distinct salespeople who made sales in each region
The count of unique products that were sold in each store

Normal Pivot Tables

For a normal pivot table, there isn’t a built-in distinct count feature in a normal pivot table. However, in Excel 2013 and later versions, you can use a simple trick, described below, to show a distinct count for a field.

For older versions of Excel, try one of the following methods:

In Excel 2010, use a technique to “Pivot the Pivot table”.
In Excel 2007 and earlier versions, add a new column to the source data, and Use CountIf.

Add to Data Model – Excel 2013 and Later

In Excel 2013, if you add a pivot table’s source data to the workbook’s Data Model, it is easy to create a distinct count in Excel pivot table.

NOTE: This technique creates an OLAP-based pivot table, which has some limitations, such as no ability to add calculated fields or calculated items. If you need the restricted features, try the “Pivot the Pivot” method instead.

Video: Count Unique in Excel Pivot Table

In this short video, I show how to count unique items (distinct count) in a Microsoft Excel pivot table. This method works in Excel 2013 and later versions.

The Sample Data

In this example, there are 4999 records that show product sales, with the region and salesperson name. The first few records are shown in the screen shot below.

You can download the sample workbook from my Contextures website. On the Pivot Table Unique Count page, go to the Download section, and click the link.

Create the Pivot Table

First, to create a pivot table that will show a distinct count, follow these steps:

Select a cell in the source data table.
At the bottom of the Create PivotTable dialog box, add a check mark to “Add this data to the Data Model”
Click OK

Set up the Pivot Table Layout

To set up the pivot table layout, follow these steps:

In the pivot table, add Region to the Row area.
Add these 3 fields to the Values area — Person, Units, Value
The Person field contains text, so it defaults to Count of Person. The count shows the total number of transactions in each region, not a unique count of salespeople

Show a Distinct Count

To get a unique count (distinct count) of salespeople in each region, follow these steps:

Right-click one of the values in the Person field
Click Value Field Settings

In the Summarize Value Field By list, scroll to the bottom, and click Distinct Count, then click OK

The Person field changes, and instead of showing the total count of transactions, it shows a distinct count of salespeople names.