How to Calculate Percent

Knowing how to calculate percentages will not only help you get a good score on a math test, but it will also help you in life. You can apply the formula to calculate the discount as a percentage of the discount, calculate the nutritional content of the food or even calculate the statistics related to your favorite football team. Although the wording may confuse you, the percentage calculation is actually very simple.

Table of Contents

Calculate percentage of total

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Learn what percentage means. Percent represents a portion of the total. The value 0% represents nothing, and 100% represents the total. The remaining values are between these two! ^{[1] X Research Source}

For example, you have 10 apples. If you eat 2 apples, it means you have eaten 2 out of 10 (the number of apples eaten is 2 / 10 x 100 = 20%). If 10 apples are 100% and you have eaten 20%, the number of apples left is 100% – 20% = 80%.
The term “percent” in English comes from the Latin per centum , which means “in 100” or “for 100”.

The percent sign is just a formality. In statistics, percentages usually take the form 0 – 1, with 1 representing the total. We just multiply the decimal by 100% to find the answer in the correct form.

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Determine the total. In some cases, you will be given a portion of the total and the total. Or, you get two parts that make up the total. It is important to recognize the meaning of percentages. For example, if we have a jar containing 1199 red marbles and 485 blue marbles, the total number of marbles is 1684. In this case, 1684 is the total number of marbles in the jar, which means 100%. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Find the value that you want to convert to a percentage. Suppose we want to determine the percentage of blue marbles in the jar, the percentage of the value to look for is 485 (the number of blue marbles) out of 1684 (the total number of marbles). ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Convert two values to a fraction. The part above (the numerator) is part of the total, and the part below (the denominator) is the total. So the fraction in this case is 485/1684 (part of the total/total). ^{[4] X Research Sources}

When you’re setting up two ratios, the easiest way is to put them both as a fraction of the total for both sides of the equation.

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Convert fractions to decimals. Calculating percentages from decimals is the most efficient way. To convert the fraction 485/1684 to a decimal number, you will either press a calculator or take out a paper and pen to do the calculation and divide 485 by 1684. The result is 0.288. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

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Convert decimals to percentages. Multiply the result you just found by 100% (over 100 = percent ). In this example, the number 0.288 multiplied by 100% equals 28.8%. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

• A simple way to multiply decimals by 100 is to move the decimal point two units to the right .
• Place a percentage symbol after the result found, similar to how you would write the unit of measure.

Convert percentage to numeric value

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Determine the values to be calculated. Let’s say a friend lends you money with a daily interest rate. The initial loan amount is $15 and the interest rate is 3% per day. These are the two values that you need to use for the calculation. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

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Convert percentage values to decimals. Repeat the steps in reverse to the previous method, dividing the percentage value by 100% or multiplying by 0.01 (the two values are equal). Your calculation is 3% / 100% = 3 / 100 = 0.03. ^{[8] X Research Sources}

In other words, you can convert any percentage value to a decimal by dividing it by 100. For example, 26% = 26 / 100 = 0.26.

You can also move the decimal point two units to the left .

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Express the formula with the new value. It is useful to express the formula with the new value in the form “ X of Y is Z ”. Where X is the decimal form of the percentage value, “of” means multiplication, Y is the total, and Z is the result. So your calculation is 0.03 x $15 = $0.45. ^{[9] X Research Source}

In this example, $0.45 interest is applied for each day that you haven’t paid the debt.
If you need to calculate the total amount owed after one day, add the amount borrowed by the interest rate times the number of days. Your calculation will be $15 + ($0.45 x 1 day) = $15.45.

Calculate discount

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Write down the original price and percentage discount on paper. The original price is usually a number marked or enlarged by the retailer so you know the price after the reduction is a “bargain”. ^{[10] X Research Source}

You need to find out if the discount percentage is applied to each product or the total amount.

If a percentage discount is applied to the total amount, you will add up the full original price of each product to calculate the total for which the percentage discount is applied. Otherwise, you will only apply the discount to each product.

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Find the opposite of the discount percentage. Here’s how to do just 1 instead of 2 calculations! The opposite of the percentage discount is calculated by subtracting 100% from the percentage discount, and the value found is the amount you will pay. If you want to buy a shirt with 30% off then the opposite will be 70%, which means you need to pay 70% of the original price. ^{[11] X Research Source}

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Convert the opposite percentage to a decimal. To convert a percentage to a decimal, you divide that value by 100%, multiply by 0.01, or move the decimal point two units to the left . In this example, 70% / 100% = 70/100 = 7/10 = 0.7. ^{[12] X Research Source}

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Multiply the original price by the new decimal. If the shirt you want to buy costs $20, multiply $20 by 0.7. Thus, you get a result of $14, which means the shirt after being discounted to $14. ^{[13] X Research Source}

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Calculating how much money you save will make you feel better. When you get home, you should review the bill; This will not only help you make sure the discount is calculated correctly, but it will also show you the amount of savings. With the example above, you simply subtract the reduced price from the original price (the savings are $20 – $14 = $6)!

Advice

x% of y is equal to y% of x. For example, 10% of 30 = 3 = 30% of 10. ^{[14] X Research Source}

Steps

Calculate percentage of total

Convert percentage to numeric value

Calculate discount

Advice

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