Author:
Randy Alexander
Date Of Creation:
4 April 2021
Update Date:
1 July 2024
Content
Knowing how to calculate a percentage increase can be helpful in a variety of situations. Even when you watch the news, you will often hear about a big change in numbers without knowing the percentages to better understand them. If you calculate the percentage increase and discover that it is only 2%, you will know that you should not believe stories that are only intimidating.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Calculate the percentage increase
Write down the start and end values. For example, let's say that your car insurance costs go up. You should write down the following values:
- Your car insurance premium is 400,000 VND before the price increases. This is the beginning value.
- After the price increases, it is priced 450,000 VND. This is the final value.
Determine the level of increase. Subtract the first value from the following value to determine the level of increase. At this point, we're still working with the usual numbers, not percentages.- In the above example, 450,000 VND - 400,000 VND = an increase of 50,000 dong.
Divide the answer by the first value. Percentages are just a special form of fractions. For example, "5% of doctors" is a shorthand for "5 out of 100 doctors". By dividing the answer by the first value, we have turned it into a fraction that represents the comparison between two values.- In the above example, / 400,000 VND = 0,125.
Multiply the result by 100. This method will help convert your final answer into a percentage.- The final result for our example is 0.125 x 100 = car insurance costs increased by 12.5%.
Method 2 of 2: Alternative methods
Write down the start and end values. Start with a new example. World population increased from 5,300,000,00 people in 1990 to 7,400,000,000 in 2015.
- To solve the problem with lots of zeros, you can do the following little trick. Instead of counting every zeros in each step, we can rewrite them as 5.3 billion and 7.4 billion.
Divide the end value by the beginning value. This measure will tell us the difference between the final result and the original number.
- 7.4 billion ÷ 5.3 billion = approx 1,4.
- We will round the result so that there are two significant digits left because this is the number that the original problem suggested.
Multiply by 100. This way, you will know the percentage between the two values. If the value increases (instead of decreasing), your result will always be greater than 100.
- 1.4 x 100 = 140%. This means that the world population in 2015 increased by 140% compared to the population in 1990.
Subtract 100. In this problem, "100%" is the size of the original value. By excluding it from our answer, we will be left with the value-added percentage.
- 140% - 100% = population increase 40%.
- The reason is because the start value + the increment value = the end value. Rearrange the equation and we will have an increment = end value - start value.
Advice
- The percentage increase will tell you about the change correlate, means the level of value increase compared to the beginning value. The price of eggs increases by about 100,000 VND, which is quite a lot. But a house price increase of 100,000 dong is only a relatively small number.
- You can calculate the percentage reduction using the same method. You will get a negative result showing that the value is getting smaller.
- Increased value is also known as change absolute, means the actual quantity described. Egg prices and house prices increased by 100,000 VND with the same value increase absolute.
