Calculate Relative Rank With PERCENT_RANK And CUME_DIST

Use percent-rank window functions to express each row's position within an ordered group.

Created Apr 30, 2026 Last updated Apr 30, 2026 5/5 supported engines validation-green 1 example 2 scenarios

Docker-validated Not currently validation-green

Example 1

Show relative rank for each test score

Dan is first in ascending score order, so his percent rank is 0. Bob and Carol tie at 80 and share the same rank values. Ada is last and reaches the top of the cumulative distribution.

MySQL SQL Server PostgreSQL

Engine-specific syntax

Source table data

Setup

CREATE TABLE scores (student VARCHAR(20), score INT);

INSERT INTO
  scores
VALUES
  ('Ada', 95),
  ('Bob', 80),
  ('Carol', 80),
  ('Dan', 60);

Validated query

SQL

SELECT
  student,
  score,
  PERCENT_RANK() OVER (
    ORDER BY
      score
  ) AS pct_rank,
  CUME_DIST() OVER (
    ORDER BY
      score
  ) AS cumulative_dist
FROM
  scores
ORDER BY
  score,
  student;

Expected result

student	score	pct_rank	cumulative_dist
Dan	60	0	0.25
Bob	80	0.3333333333333333	0.75
Carol	80	0.3333333333333333	0.75
Ada	95	1	1

MariaDB

Engine-specific syntax

Source table data

Setup

CREATE TABLE scores (student VARCHAR(20), score INT);

INSERT INTO
  scores
VALUES
  ('Ada', 95),
  ('Bob', 80),
  ('Carol', 80),
  ('Dan', 60);

Validated query

SQL

SELECT
  student,
  score,
  PERCENT_RANK() OVER (
    ORDER BY
      score
  ) AS pct_rank,
  CUME_DIST() OVER (
    ORDER BY
      score
  ) AS cumulative_dist
FROM
  scores
ORDER BY
  score,
  student;

Expected result

student	score	pct_rank	cumulative_dist
Dan	60	0	0.25
Bob	80	0.3333333333	0.75
Carol	80	0.3333333333	0.75
Ada	95	1	1

SQLite

Engine-specific syntax

Source table data

Setup

CREATE TABLE scores (student TEXT, score INT);

INSERT INTO
  scores
VALUES
  ('Ada', 95),
  ('Bob', 80),
  ('Carol', 80),
  ('Dan', 60);

Validated query

SQL

SELECT
  student,
  score,
  PERCENT_RANK() OVER (
    ORDER BY
      score
  ) AS pct_rank,
  CUME_DIST() OVER (
    ORDER BY
      score
  ) AS cumulative_dist
FROM
  scores
ORDER BY
  score,
  student;

Expected result

student	score	pct_rank	cumulative_dist
Dan	60	0	0.25
Bob	80	0.3333333333333333	0.75
Carol	80	0.3333333333333333	0.75
Ada	95	1	1

Floating-point formatting can vary slightly by engine, so expected rows are not fixed here.

Useful when

Where this command helps.

showing where a score sits within a distribution
labeling rows by relative standing rather than absolute rank

Explanation

What the command is doing.

PERCENT_RANK() and CUME_DIST() turn an ordered position into a fractional value between 0 and 1. PERCENT_RANK reports how far a row's rank is from the first row relative to the partition size. CUME_DIST reports the cumulative fraction of rows less than or equal to the current row's sort value. They are useful for percentile-like labels, leaderboards, and distribution analysis.

Calculate Relative Rank With PERCENT_RANK And CUME_DIST

Show relative rank for each test score

Where this command helps.

What the command is doing.

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