Q&A for How to Calculate Percentage Increase

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  • Question
    Why does my answer keep coming out wrong?
    Grace Imson, MA
    Math Instructor, City College of San Francisco
    Grace Imson is a math teacher with over 40 years of teaching experience. Grace is currently a math instructor at the City College of San Francisco and was previously in the Math Department at Saint Louis University. She has taught math at the elementary, middle, high school, and college levels. She has an MA in Education, specializing in Administration and Supervision from Saint Louis University.
    Math Instructor, City College of San Francisco
    Expert Answer
    Make sure you're not using the wrong denominator to calculate the percentage increase. The original price, not the difference, should be the denominator when you're dividing. The difference should be the numerator.
  • Question
    How can I learn to increase numbers by a certain percentage?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Convert the percentage to a decimal. Multiply the original number by that decimal. Add that product to the original number. The sum is the final number you're seeking.
  • Question
    How do I determine the percentage between a product's yearly production increase?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Subtract the first year's production from the second year's production. Take that difference, and divide it by the first year's production. That's the percentage increase in production.
  • Question
    How do I calculate $80 by 5%?
    Community Answer
    Multiply 80 x .05 to get 5% of 80. The answer is $4.00. If you are increasing 80 by 5%, then add the answer to 80 to get the final total which is $84.00.
  • Question
    How do I find percentage decrease?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Subtract the smaller number from the larger number. Then divide that difference by the larger number. That's the percentage of decrease.
  • Question
    What is 250 as a percentage?
    Community Answer
    This completely depends on what the total is. 250 could be 100%. If it's out of 500, then it's half, so 50%. If you drank 250ml of water out of a 500ml glass, you drank half the water.
  • Question
    What is a part time clerk's salary if he is earning R216 per week and received a salary increase of 7%?
    Community Answer
    R216 x 1.07 = R231.12. You take the original amount and multiply by 1.07; this is the same as adding the increase to the original amount.
  • Question
    What if I am working with zero? I have $38.00 one month then $0.00 is brought in the next month. What is the decrease in percentages?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    It's a 100% decrease from one month to the next.
  • Question
    What would the growth of $200,000.00 at 4% interest be for 22 years?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    If you're asking about "simple" interest, you would convert 4% to a decimal, multiply it by 22, and multiply that by 200,000. That would give you how much the money grew (not what it grew to). If you're dealing with "compound" interest, the process is more complicated and involves an exponential equation.
  • Question
    How do I increase a number by 150 percent?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Convert the percentage to a decimal, then multiply that decimal by the original number.
  • Question
    How do I calculate percent decrease or increase without knowing the original number?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    You don't.
  • Question
    What if my starting value is zero?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    If you're dealing with percentage increases, zero will never grow. You have to start with something larger than zero. You could add a number to zero, then apply a percentage of growth.
  • Question
    If I calculate 34% of discount, what is the original rate?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    If the discount is 34%, that means the new rate is 66% of the original rate (100 - 34 = 66). Divide the new rate by 66% (0.66) to get the original rate. Say, for example, the new figure is 12. 12 ÷ 0.66 = 18.2.
  • Question
    How do I change a fraction into percentage?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Divide the numerator by the denominator. Multiply the quotient by 100 and insert a percentage sign. For example, take the fraction ¾. 3 ÷ 4 = 0.75. (0.75)(100) = 75. So ¾ = 75%.
  • Question
    How do I calculate the original price after a percentage increase?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Let's assume you know the new price. In the case of a 5% increase, divide the new price by 1.05. That gives you the original price. If it's a 12% increase, divide by 1.12.
  • Question
    182 is a 5% increase of what number?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Increasing a number by 5% is the same as multiplying that number by 1.05. Let x be the number you're looking for. Then (1.05)(x) = 182. Divide both sides of that equation by 1.05.
  • Question
    How do I calculate the percentage of the gain on an investment?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    To find the annual percentage yield on an investment (assuming a gain), subtract the value of the investment at the beginning of the year from its value at the end of the year, then divide that difference by the value at the beginning of the year. That will give you a decimal number. Multiply it by 100 to get a percentage. For example, if the investment's value rose from 2,000 to 3,000 during the year, subtracting the starting value from the final value gives you 1,000. Divide that by 2,000, giving you 0.5. Multiply by 100 to get a 50% gain for the year (because 1,000 is 50% of 2,000).
  • Question
    How do I compute a 4% annual increase on a $511 monthly rent increase for a period of ten years?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Nominally it's a 40% increase over ten years, but the real (compounded) increase is considerably more than that and is calculated using an exponential formula. See wikiHow articles on compound interest.
  • Question
    If a 400% increase = $600, what is the original amount?
    Community Answer
    x = original amount x times 400% = $600 Divide both sides by 400% (or 4) x = $150
  • Question
    How do I calculate the decrease?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    First subtract the new number from the original number. Divide that difference by the original number, multiply by 100, then insert a minus sign in front of that number and a percentage sign after it. For example, say the number decreases from 50 to 40. 50 - 40 = 10. 10 ÷ 50 = 0.2. (0.2)(100) = 20. The percentage of decrease is -20%.
  • Question
    How do I calculate if the water requirement is a minimum 50 liters per second and we have to reject 20%?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    If you need 50 liters per second but "lose" 20% of the total being pumped, that means 50 liters would be 80% of the total being pumped. 50 ÷ 80% = 50 ÷ 0.8 = 62.5 liters per second needed to be pumped.
  • Question
    A man invested an amount of money in a fund that earns 5% interest in a year. After how many years will his money be doubled?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Divide 72 by 5 = 14.4 years. That's using the "rule of 72:" divide 72 by the annual rate of interest to get the number of years it will take for an investment to double in value.
  • Question
    How do I get the percentage ahead with last week sales from current week sales?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Find the difference between the two sales figures by subtracting the smaller figure from the larger figure. Then divide that difference by last week's figure. That gives the percentage of change between last week's figure and the current week's figure (positive percentage if sales increased, negative percentage if sales decreased).
  • Question
    Something costs me $2.097. I want to make a 33% profit. How do I calculate that?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Multiply the cost by 1.33. That would give you the price you'd need to charge to make a 33% profit.
  • Question
    If a 1428-square-foot building per square foot costs 10 taka, and in a 3000-square-foot building per square foot costs 12 taka. What is the percentage in increase?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    The change from 10 taka to 12 taka is an increase of 2/10 or 20%. (The number of square feet is not considered.)
  • Question
    A 1947 Ferrari cost $3,800. The value today is $750,000. How do I find the percentage increase?
    West End Family Link
    Community Answer
    You would subtract $3,800 from $750,000 which is $746,200, then divide $746,200 by $3,800 which is 196.3684. Round that number to the nearest 100th, which is 196.37 and multiply it by 100 (or conversely move the decimal two places), and your percentage is 19637% increase.
  • Question
    How do I calculate compound interest?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    The short answer is to use a compound-interest calculator. The longer answer is this: the amount of compound interest earned is equal to the original principal, multiplied by the quantity (1 + r/n) raised to the power of (nt), where r is the interest rate expressed as a decimal, n is the number of times interest is compounded per year, and t is the length of time (in years) that the rate of interest is applied.
  • Question
    It was 10, now it is 12.50. What is the percentage increase?
    Community Answer
    The increase is 25%, because the number has increased by 2.5, and 2.5 is a quarter of 10. A quarter = 25%.
  • Question
    If I have $200 at the beginning of the month, then my money is increased by 20% in the middle of the month, but then the increased amount is decreased by 20%, how do I work this out?
    Community Answer
    The increase can be calculated as 200 x 1.2 = 240 (or 200 x 20 / 100 = 40 to get how much it increased, then add to the original 200 to get the total 240). Then, the decrease can be calculated as 240 x 0.8 = 192 (or 240 x 20 / 100 = 48 to find how much it decreased, then subtract that from 240 to get 192).
  • Question
    The father horse is 96.87 percent Friesian. The mother horse is 100 percent Friesian. What percent Friesian is their baby?
    Donagan
    Top Answerer
    Add the two percentages together and divide by 2.
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