Thanks Bernie. This method is appropriate for things (like population and
financial investments) that grow exponentially I believe, is that right?
Although some of my data are financial, they are allocations, so will not
grow (much as the institutions might like them to!) in that way.

In case it helps, this is an example of the type of data I'm using:

1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004
602,510 693,462 802,933 816,473 829,214


I'm grateful for your input.

Best wishes,

Tom

"Bernie Deitrick" <deitbe @ consumer dot org wrote in message
...
Tom,

You could calculate the compound growth rate. An example for annual
compound rates:

=(1+(most recent value-oldest value)/oldest value)^(1/(most recent year -
oldest year))-1

which simplifies to

=(most recent value/oldest value)^(1/(most recent year - oldest year))-1

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP