How do I calculate percentiles with python/numpy?

NumPy has np.percentile().

import numpy as np
a = np.array([1,2,3,4,5])
p = np.percentile(a, 50)  # return 50th percentile, i.e. median.

>>> print(p)
3.0

SciPy has scipy.stats.scoreatpercentile(), in addition to many other statistical goodies.

By the way, there is a pure-Python implementation of percentile function, in case one doesn't want to depend on scipy. The function is copied below:

## {{{ http://code.activestate.com/recipes/511478/ (r1)
import math
import functools

def percentile(N, percent, key=lambda x:x):
    """
    Find the percentile of a list of values.

    @parameter N - is a list of values. Note N MUST BE already sorted.
    @parameter percent - a float value from 0.0 to 1.0.
    @parameter key - optional key function to compute value from each element of N.

    @return - the percentile of the values
    """
    if not N:
        return None
    k = (len(N)-1) * percent
    f = math.floor(k)
    c = math.ceil(k)
    if f == c:
        return key(N[int(k)])
    d0 = key(N[int(f)]) * (c-k)
    d1 = key(N[int(c)]) * (k-f)
    return d0+d1

# median is 50th percentile.
median = functools.partial(percentile, percent=0.5)
## end of http://code.activestate.com/recipes/511478/ }}}

import numpy as np
a = [154, 400, 1124, 82, 94, 108]
print np.percentile(a,95) # gives the 95th percentile

Here's how to do it without numpy, using only python to calculate the percentile.

import math

def percentile(data, perc: int):
    size = len(data)
    return sorted(data)[int(math.ceil((size * perc) / 100)) - 1]

percentile([10.0, 9.0, 8.0, 7.0, 6.0, 5.0, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 1.0], 90)
# 9.0
percentile([142, 232, 290, 120, 274, 123, 146, 113, 272, 119, 124, 277, 207], 50)
# 146