Calculate percentages quickly and accurately with this free percentage calculator. You can find a percentage of a number, determine what percentage one number is of another, calculate percentage change, or compare two values using percentage difference.
Percentages are used every day in mathematics, business, education, finance, shopping, statistics, and many other situations. Whether you are calculating a discount, checking a student's score, comparing prices, measuring an increase in sales, or working out how much one quantity represents of another, understanding percentages makes these calculations much easier.
Instead of calculating each result manually, enter your numbers into the appropriate calculator below and get an immediate result. The formulas used by each calculator are also provided so that you can understand how the answer is obtained.
Use this calculator when you want to find a specified percentage of a number. This is one of the most common percentage calculations.
Example: To find 20% of 500, enter 20 as the percentage and 500 as the number.
Use this calculator when you know two numbers and want to find out what percentage the first number represents of the second number.
Example: If a student scores 75 marks out of 100, you can use this calculator to determine that the student scored 75%.
Percentage change shows how much a value has increased or decreased compared with its original value. It is useful when comparing prices, sales figures, measurements, population, scores, or other values over time.
Example: If a product originally costs 500 and its price increases to 650, the percentage change is 30%.
Percentage difference is used to compare two values when neither value is being treated as the original or starting value. It is particularly useful when comparing two independent measurements or quantities.
Example: If two measurements are 500 and 650, percentage difference compares the difference between them against their average.
A percentage is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100. The word "percent" means "per hundred." The percentage symbol is %.
For example, 25% means 25 out of every 100. It can also be written as the fraction 25/100 or the decimal 0.25.
Converting a percentage to a decimal is useful when performing calculations. Simply divide the percentage by 100. For example, 35% becomes 0.35.
The basic percentage formula depends on what you are trying to calculate. A common calculation is finding what percentage one number represents of another number.
Suppose you want to know what percentage 40 is of 200.
The second calculator above performs this calculation automatically. You only need to enter the number and the total.
The following examples demonstrate some common ways percentages are used in everyday calculations.
To find 20% of 500, first convert 20% to a decimal by dividing it by 100.
Divide the smaller quantity by the total quantity and multiply the result by 100.
Suppose a value changes from 500 to 650. The increase is 150. Compared with the original value of 500, this represents a 30% increase.
If an item costs ₦20,000 and has a 15% discount, the discount amount is calculated as follows:
The price after the discount would therefore be ₦17,000.
Percentage change and percentage difference may appear similar, but they are used in different situations.
| Calculation | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Percentage Change | Use it when comparing a new value with an original or starting value. |
| Percentage Difference | Use it when comparing two values where neither is considered the starting value. |
For example, if the price of a product changes from ₦10,000 to ₦12,000, percentage change is appropriate because ₦10,000 is the original price. If you are simply comparing two independent measurements, percentage difference may be more appropriate.
Percentages are useful in many areas of everyday life and professional work. Some common examples include:
Divide the number by 10. For example, 10% of 500 is 50. You can also enter 10 and 500 into the first calculator above.
Divide the number by the total and multiply the result by 100. For example, 30 out of 120 is 25%, because (30 ÷ 120) × 100 = 25%.
Percentage change compares a new value with an original value. Percentage difference compares two values without assigning one of them as the starting value.
Yes. A percentage can be greater than 100% when the quantity being measured is greater than the reference quantity. For example, 200 is 200% of 100.
50% means 50 out of 100, which is equivalent to one-half or 0.5.
100% of any number is the number itself. For example, 100% of 250 is 250.
Yes. This percentage calculator is designed to provide quick calculations without requiring manual percentage formulas.
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