In SQL, revenue growth rate for the whole period is calculated from the first and last month over the monthly table. On the sample data it returns 33.23.
Revenue growth rate = (Revenue this period − Revenue last period) ÷ Revenue last period × 100
What you need
Revenue growth rate is the percentage change in revenue from one period to the next: this period's revenue minus last period's, divided by last period's, times 100. You need these columns, here from the sample file monthly.csv:
- revenue: revenue (net of discounts)
CREATE TABLE monthly (
month TEXT, -- 'YYYY-MM'
revenue INTEGER
);Step by step
- Load monthly.csv into a table called monthly. The table only needs the month column and the columns below.
- Run the first query to get one row per month.
- Run the whole-period query. It adds up each column first and divides once; averaging the monthly results gives a different, usually wrong, answer.
The queries
SELECT
month,
revenue,
ROUND(100.0 * (revenue - LAG(revenue) OVER (ORDER BY month))
/ NULLIF(LAG(revenue) OVER (ORDER BY month), 0), 2) AS revenue_growth
FROM monthly
ORDER BY month;SELECT ROUND(100.0 * (
(SELECT revenue FROM monthly ORDER BY month DESC LIMIT 1) -
(SELECT revenue FROM monthly ORDER BY month LIMIT 1)
) / (SELECT revenue FROM monthly ORDER BY month LIMIT 1), 2) AS revenue_growth;What you should get
Run against the sample data, the code above returns these values (in percent):
| Month | revenue | revenue_growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 4,12,000 | — |
| 2026-02 | 4,38,500 | 6.43% |
| 2026-03 | 4,71,200 | 7.46% |
| 2026-04 | 4,55,800 | -3.27% |
| 2026-05 | 5,02,300 | 10.20% |
| 2026-06 | 5,48,900 | 9.28% |
| Whole period | 33.23% |
(₹5,48,900 − ₹4,12,000) ÷ ₹4,12,000 × 100 = 33.23%
Notes for SQL
- Integer columns divide as integers in PostgreSQL, SQLite and SQL Server, so 3 / 4 gives 0. Multiplying by 1.0 (or 100.0) first makes the division decimal.
- NULLIF(x, 0) turns a zero denominator into NULL, so the query returns NULL for that row instead of failing with a division-by-zero error.
- Tested on SQLite and DuckDB. SUM, NULLIF and ROUND work the same in PostgreSQL, MySQL and BigQuery; SQL Server uses TOP instead of LIMIT where a query has one.
Where revenue growth rate misleads
- Months have different numbers of days and weekends. A 31-day month after February looks like growth.
- Do not average monthly growth rates to summarise a period; use the compound rate.
- Growth from a tiny base is not comparable to growth from a large one.
The full explanation, with a calculator, is on the Revenue growth rate page.
Same metric, other tools
Related metrics in SQL
Learn more about SQL
- Python and SQL for data analysis, side by side — 3 min read
- How to find out what changed in your sales data — 2 min read
About the data on this page
The figures come from a small made-up dataset, printed above in full so you can check every number by hand. Download it as monthly.csv. The results are computed from those rows when the page is built, and the Excel formulas, SQL and Python on these pages are run against the same rows before publishing, so the code and the answers agree.
To get these numbers from your own data without writing formulas, try AnalyzeIt: ask in plain words and it shows the working behind every figure.
Legal entity
Devansh Yadav
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
Governing law: Courts at Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
Phone: +91 8433475698
Legal: legal@analyzeit.in