A data analyst uses Excel to answer a question from a file a colleague has just sent: a few thousand rows, a lookup, a pivot, and a total that still matches the source. In the UK, as of 26 October 2026, employers still name it on job ads. They name SQL and Power BI more often.
Excel is not the skill that gets you hired on its own, and it is not a skill you can skip because a course has moved on to Python. This guide uses one public source, says what the word "Excel" means on an analyst advert, and marks the point where you should stop and open SQL. If you are still mapping the wider path, start with how to become a data analyst and our essential skills breakdown.
The short answer
- Excel is still on the ads. In the six months to 26 October 2026, Microsoft Excel appears on 139 of 994 UK permanent ads with "Data Analyst" in the title (14.0%).
- SQL and Power BI are named more often. SQL is on 319 of those ads (32.1%). Power BI is on 265 (26.7%). Learn Excel to a solid working level, then spend the next months on SQL.
- "Excel" means a checkable table, not a macro. Interviews that use a spreadsheet want a lookup, a pivot and a total you can defend. VBA is not in the top 30 skills on these ads.
- Use XLOOKUP on Microsoft 365, Excel 2021 or Excel 2024. Microsoft states that XLOOKUP is not available in Excel 2016 or Excel 2019. On those versions, INDEX and MATCH do the same job.
- Power Query is the part that transfers. It is how a one-off clean becomes a refresh, and it is the same idea Power BI uses. A few weeks of part-time practice covers this bar if spreadsheets are already your job. SQL takes longer.
What UK ads actually name
IT Jobs Watch tracks skills that appear alongside a job title in UK permanent vacancies. For the six months to 26 October 2026 it lists 994 ads with Data Analyst in the title. Of those, 671 quote a salary, and the median of the quoted salaries is £57,500. The skill counts below are co-occurrences: an ad can name several tools, so the shares do not add up to 100%.
| Skill | Ads naming it | Share of 994 ads |
|---|---|---|
| SQL | 319 | 32.1% |
| Power BI / Power Platform | 265 | 26.7% |
| Python | 184 | 18.5% |
| Microsoft Excel | 139 | 14.0% |
| Tableau | 78 | 7.8% |
Read 14% carefully. It is not "Excel is dying", and it is not "most analyst jobs are Excel jobs". About one in seven of these ads bothers to name it. The ads that leave it out can still send you a file on a Tuesday. The ads that name it almost never list a function. Pivot tables, XLOOKUP, Power Query and VBA do not appear in the top 30 co-occurring skills on this page. Recruiters write "Microsoft Excel" and stop. The advert is a poor syllabus.
Two limits on this source, so you do not over-read it. First, it only covers ads whose title contains Data Analyst. Reporting analyst, MI analyst and financial analyst sit outside the count, and those titles often live in Excel more than this table suggests. Second, it does not split salary by skill, so this article will not invent an Excel pay premium. For the pay bands, see Data Analyst salary in the UK.
The same page is not London-only, which matters if you are searching outside the capital. Over the same six months it lists 231 London ads with a median quoted salary of £60,000, 730 ads in the UK excluding London at £55,000, and 217 work-from-home ads at £50,000. Those rows overlap, so do not add them. Excel itself is not broken out by city. A regional or remote analyst still receives files.
Our Python for data analysts guide quotes an earlier extract of this same page, for the six months to 11 October 2026, when the ad count and the shares were different. IT Jobs Watch moves the window. The figures in this article are the ones on the page as of 26 October 2026.
The level a test actually reaches
Because the advert stops at the word Excel, the useful split is what you can do with a messy file while someone watches. Four levels are enough. Stop at the third unless a specific ad names the fourth.
| Level | You can | Enough? |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday user | SUM, filters, formatting, one VLOOKUP copied down a column | Not for an analyst exercise |
| Interview bar | An Excel Table, XLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH, SUMIFS, dates, a pivot, and a total that matches the source rows | Yes, for the Excel part of a junior test |
| The skill that transfers | Power Query: split a dirty column, set types, drop blanks, refresh next month without redoing it by hand | This is the level to reach, then leave |
| Stop, unless the ad asks | VBA, Excel used as a shared database, towers of nested IF formulas | That time belongs to SQL |
Lookups: XLOOKUP, with a fallback
Microsoft's XLOOKUP documentation describes a function that searches one range and returns the matching item from another range, regardless of which side that range sits on. The optional if_not_found argument lets you return your own text instead of an error. VLOOKUP looks only to the right, and it asks for a column index, so inserting a column silently returns the wrong field.
On Microsoft 365, Excel 2021 or Excel 2024, this is the shape of a lookup worth knowing:
=XLOOKUP(A2, Orders[Order ID], Orders[Revenue], "Missing")Microsoft also states that XLOOKUP is not available in Excel 2016 or Excel 2019. Plenty of UK teams have not moved. If the laptop you are handed is on one of those versions, use an exact MATCH inside INDEX, and wrap it so a missing key is a word rather than an error. Do not spend a month collecting lookup functions. One reliable lookup, plus the habit of checking how many rows matched, is the test.
Power Query, not another formula course
Microsoft describes Power Query (Get & Transform on the Data tab) in four phases: connect, transform, combine, load, then refresh. Transform means the original file stays untouched while you remove a column, change a type, or merge tables. Refresh means next month's file runs the same steps.
That is the analyst version of Excel. A formula you typed once into a cell is a note to yourself. A query you can refresh is something a teammate can trust. The same steps are how Power BI ingests a file, which is why this is the Excel topic worth the hours. Our Power BI vs Tableau comparison covers which BI tool UK ads name more often. Power BI leads on this source (26.7% versus 7.8% for Tableau).
Where Excel should stop
You will use Excel, SQL and a BI tool in the same week. They are not a ranking of status. They answer different shapes of question.
| The situation | Open |
|---|---|
| A stakeholder sends a few thousand rows and needs a cut by Friday | Excel, ideally through Power Query and one pivot |
| The number has to match the warehouse, and someone will ask how you got it | SQL |
| The same view has to refresh and be used by people who will not open your file | Power BI or Tableau |
| The file is messy, the steps will be repeated, or the reshape is painful in both Excel and SQL | Python |
| Several people need to edit the same cells at once | A database table, not a shared workbook |
SQL is what UK technical screens usually open with. Our SQL guide for data analysts covers joins, nulls and the level interviews test. Python is the tool for the file that is not query-ready. The order, and what "Python" means on these same ads, is in the Python guide. When an interview uses Excel at all, it tends to sit beside SQL, as a case or a take-home, which is also how our data analyst interview questions describe the process.
If Excel is already your job
Many people who retrain into analytics already live in workbooks: finance, operations, marketing, HR, administration. That is useful. You already know what a stakeholder means by "can you just pull the number", and you have felt a total go wrong. The ads above are the reason it is not the whole plan. Excel is named less often than SQL. A strong workbook does not answer a SQL screen.
Treat the interview bar in the table as a checklist against the work you already do. If the pivots, the lookups and the reconciliation are real, do not take an Excel course to feel busy. Spend the hours on SQL, then on one BI tool. The timeline for the whole transition, not just the spreadsheet piece, is in how long it takes to become a data analyst in the UK. How that first application is assembled is in how to get your first data analyst job.
One way to practise
Use a file you already have, or any public CSV with dirty dates and a few blank rows. One evening is enough to see whether you are at the interview bar.
- Turn the range into an Excel Table (Insert, Table) so a blank row cannot silently split a pivot.
- Clean the dirty column in Power Query (Data, Get & Transform): split it, set the types, drop the blanks. Leave the original file unchanged.
- Build one pivot that answers one question. Not five charts.
- Check the pivot grand total against a COUNT or SUM of the source rows. If they differ, the pivot is wrong, even when it looks finished.
- Write the answer in one sentence a manager could forward, including what the data cannot tell you.
If you cannot complete step 4, more functions will not help. The missing skill is the check. That same check is what a hiring manager is listening for when they ask you to walk through a number.
Mistakes that waste months
Collecting an Excel certificate and stopping
A badge does not show that your total matches the source. UK employers who hire career changers look at whether you can do the work. How certificates compare with a portfolio is covered in data analyst certifications in the UK.
Learning VBA because it sounds advanced
VBA does not appear in the top 30 skills on the IT Jobs Watch extract used here. A macro that only you can run is a liability on a team. Learn it later, for a job that names it.
Pivoting a raw range
A blank row or a second header in the middle of a range drops rows out of the pivot without an error. Put the data in a Table first, or load it through Power Query. Then reconcile the total before you format anything.
Staying in Excel because it feels like progress
Familiar work is comfortable, and comfort is how a job search stalls. Once the checklist above is honest, the next hour is SQL. The projects that turn that into interviews are described in how to build a data analyst portfolio. A single polished spreadsheet is a weaker portfolio than one question answered in SQL and shown in a dashboard, with the Excel file as the messy input you cleaned.
Frequently asked questions
Do data analysts still need Excel in the UK in 2026?
Yes. In the six months to 26 October 2026, IT Jobs Watch recorded Microsoft Excel on 139 of 994 UK permanent ads with Data Analyst in the title (14.0%). SQL was on 32.1% and Power BI on 26.7%. Excel is still named often enough to practise. It is not the skill those ads name most often.
Should I learn Excel or SQL first as a data analyst?
If you cannot yet use a proper Excel Table, a lookup, a pivot and a total that matches the source, learn that first. It is quick, and you will use it on the job. For getting hired in the UK, move to SQL as soon as that bar is met. SQL is named on 32.1% of these ads and Excel on 14.0%, and technical interviews usually open with SQL.
Is VLOOKUP enough for a UK data analyst interview?
No. Microsoft documents XLOOKUP as a lookup that can return a value from a column on either side, and that can return text you choose when nothing matches. VLOOKUP only looks to the right and uses a column number that breaks when the sheet changes. XLOOKUP is not available in Excel 2016 or Excel 2019, so INDEX and MATCH is the equivalent on those versions. A typical Excel exercise also expects a pivot and a total you can reconcile. VBA is not required for a typical junior analyst ad.
Do I need Power Query as a data analyst?
Yes, if you want the Excel skill that transfers. Microsoft describes Power Query, also called Get & Transform, as the way to connect to data, shape it, and refresh it later. The same ideas carry into Power BI. UK Data Analyst ads rarely name Power Query on its own. They name Excel and, more often, Power BI. Power Query is how those two lines become one skill.
How long does it take to learn Excel for a data analyst job?
If you already use spreadsheets at work, the interview bar (Tables, lookups, pivot tables, Power Query, and reconciled totals) is a few weeks of deliberate part-time practice, not a new career. If you are new to spreadsheets, allow longer, and still do not delay SQL. Excel alone does not replace the SQL screen.
Read next
- SQL for Data Analysts: The Honest Beginner's Guide
- Power BI vs Tableau: Which Should You Learn First in 2026?
- Python for Data Analysts: What UK Employers Actually Expect in 2026
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