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Percentage Increase Calculator

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The percentage increase calculator is a useful tool for calculating the increase from one value to another in terms of a percentage of the original amount. Before using this calculator, it may be beneficial for you to understand how to calculate the percent increase using the percent increase formula. The upcoming sections will explain these concepts in further detail.

How to calculate percent increase

Percent increase captures the amount of increase from the original number to the final number in terms of 100 parts of the original. An increase of 5 percent means that if you split the original value into 100 parts, that value has increased by an additional 5 parts. So, if the original value increases by 14 percent, that means an increase of 14 for every 100 units, 28 for every 200 units, and so on.

In the next section, we will discuss an example using the percent increase formula to make this even clearer.

🙋 While the percentage increase calculator is important in mathematics, it also has applications in science, such as calculating the percent increase in mass of a chemical element in a compound.

Percent increase formula

The percent increase formula is as follows:

% increase=100×(final−initial)∣initial∣\footnotesize \rm \%\ increase = 100 \times \frac{(final - initial)}{|initial|}

Here is an example. Suppose a $1,250 investment increased in value to $1,445 dollars in one year. What is the percent increase in the investment? To answer this, use the following steps:

  1. Identify the initial value and the final value.
  2. Input the values into the formula.
  3. Subtract the initial value from the final value, then divide the result by the absolute value of the initial value.
  4. Multiply the result by 100. The answer is the percent increase.
  5. Check your answer using the percentage increase calculator.

Working out the problem by hand, we get:

  1. [(1,445 - 1,250)/1,250] × 100
  2. (195/1,250) × 100
  3. 0.156 × 100
  4. 15.6 percent increase.

The percentage growth calculator is a great tool for both simple and complex problems! If you want to solve other problems with percentages, check out our percentage calculator as well.

Calculating percent decrease

If you want to know how to calculate percent decrease, we follow a very similar process as percent increase. Notice the slight modification of the formula:

% decrease=100×(initial−final)∣initial∣\footnotesize \rm \%\ decrease = 100 \times \frac{(initial - final)}{|initial|}

Suppose we have the same investment value after one year of $1,445. A year later the value decreased to $1,300. The percent decrease would be calculated as follows:

  1. [(1,445 - 1,300)/1,445] × 100
  2. (145/1,445) × 100
  3. 0.10 × 100 = 10 percent decrease

Real-life applications

Percentage increase is used in many contexts to describe relative growth over time. This quantity is often more informative than absolute growth because it captures trends, or the pace of growth.

Here is one real-life example where this distinction matters. Suppose a company achieved $1,000,000 extra profit compared to the previous year. This information tells us little unless we know how well the company did in previous years. If last year's profit was $1,000,000, then the company profit increased by 100% — which is spectacular. If, by contrast, the firm made a profit of $100,000,000 the year before, then its profit only increased by 1%. This means that the company barely grew in this time period. This example shows that the relative growth of a company tells us much more about its condition than the absolute growth.

Below, you will find more real-life examples of percentage increase:

  1. Inflation rate tells us how prices of goods and services compare to the same prices 12 months before.

  2. Salary increase rate captures how much salaries grew from the previous year. If it beats the inflation rate, then citizens typically have more money to spend or share.

  3. Population growth rate describes how fast the population of a country or region grows.

FAQs

Where is percentage increase useful?

Percentage increase is useful when you want to analyze how a value has changed over time. Although the percentage increase is very similar to the absolute increase, the former is more useful when comparing multiple data sets. For example, a change from 1 to 51 and from 50 to 100 both have an absolute change of 50.

However, the percentage increase for the first is 5000%, while for the second, it is 100%, so the first change grew relatively a lot more. This is why percentage increase is the most common way of measuring growth.

How do I calculate percentage increase over time?

Here are the steps to calculate a percentage increase over time:

  1. If you know the percentage change, go directly to step 4. Otherwise, subtract initial value from the final value.

  2. Divide the difference from the previous step by the modulus of the initial value (i.e., the initial value without the minus sign).

  3. Multiply this new number by 100. You now have the percentage change.

  4. Divide the percentage change by the period of time between the two numbers.

  5. You now have the percentage increase over time. Remember that the units will be % / [time], where time is the unit you divided by (e.g., seconds).

  6. For linear plots, multiply this number by any time difference to get the percentage change between the two times.

  7. For non-linear plots, just replace the larger number with your equation and solve algebraically. This will only find the percentage change between a number you input and the original number.

How do I add a percentage increase to a number?

If you want to increase a number by a certain percentage, follow these steps:

  1. Divide the number you wish to increase by 100 to find 1% of it.
  2. Multiply 1% by your chosen percentage.
  3. Add this number to your original number.
  4. There you go. You have just added a percentage increase to a number!

How do I add 5% to a number?

To add 5% to a number:

  1. Divide the number you wish to add 5% to by 100.
  2. Multiply this new number by 5.
  3. Add the product of the multiplication to your original number.
  4. Enjoy working at 105%!

How do I add two percentages?

To add two percentages together follow these steps:

  1. Calculate the first percentage by dividing the number you wish to find the percentage of by 100.

  2. Multiply the result by the percentage in its percentage form (e.g., 50 for 50%) to get the percentage of the original number.

  3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for the other number.

  4. Add these two numbers together to get the addition of two percentages.

  5. If the number you wish to find the percentage of is the same for both percentages, you can just add the two percentages together and use this new percentage to get the result of the addition.

How do I calculate a 10% increase?

  1. Divide the number you are adding the increase to by 10.
  2. Alternatively, multiply the value by 0.1.
  3. Add the product of the previous step to your original number.
  4. Be proud of your mathematical ability!

How do I make a percentage?

  1. Decide two things — the number of which you want to find the percentage of and your chosen percentage.
  2. Divide the chosen number by 100.
  3. Multiply this new number by your chosen percentage.
  4. There you go. You’ve just made a percentage!

What is a 50% increase?

A 50% increase is where you increase your current value by an additional half. You can find this value by finding half of your current value and adding this to the value. For example, if you want to find a 50% increase to 80, you divide by 2 to get 40, and add the two values together to get 120. A 50% increase is different from a 100% increase, which is double the original value.

How do I calculate percentage increase in Excel?

While it's easier to use Omni's Percentage Increase Calculator, here are the steps to calculate the percentage increase in Excel:

  1. Input the original number (for example, into cell A1).

  2. Input the increased number (for example, into cell B1).

  3. Subtract the original number from the increased number (In C1, input =B1-A1) and label it 'difference'.

  4. Divide the difference by the original price and multiply it by 100 (In D1, input =(C1/A1)*100) and label it 'percentage increase'.

  5. Right-click on the final cell and select Format Cells.

  6. In the Format Cells box, under Number, select Percentage and specify your desired number of decimal places.

How do I add 20% to a number?

  1. Divide the original number by 100 to get 1% of it.
  2. Multiply 1% by your desired percentage, in this case, 20.
  3. Add the product of the previous step to your original number.
  4. Congratulate yourself on adding 20% to your number!

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