Percentage (2024)

Introduction

The percentage is a value that usually indicates the hundredth part of any given quantity. For example, one percent refers to the hundredth part while 200 will specify double quantities. The cumulative percentage is used in a mathematical domain like statistics, also known as a percentile. For example, any student obtaining marks of the 83 percentile will depict that the performance exceeded 83 % of students.

Usually, percentages are used as % to depict a fraction of 100, while they can also be expressed in decimal forms. Half of anything is also depicted through percentage signs like 50%. In simpler words, any number or number is divided by 100 to get the outcome in percentage form.

The percentage formula

The share of 100 is generally calculated through unitary methods or by changing the fraction denominator. The changing denominator fraction should not be used when the 100th factor. Hence, unitary methods are prevalent for calculations. One of the popular methods is values divided by total values multiplied by 100.

Difference of percentage of two numbers

How to find percentages?

The percentage is a collective term used for hundredths. For instance, 1% is an indicator of 0.01 % calculated as 1/ 100. The percentage can be calculated using two formulas.

If there are two values of which the sum is 100, no percentage calculation is required as the total value depicts the whole number. Values can be easily converted to equivalent fractions in such mathematical conditions by keeping 100 as the denominator.

The most common method to get a percentage is by dividing value by total value and multiplying by 100. Taking an example, there are red buttons in 20 sets, then what will be the percentage out of 100. The values will be converted into fractions 8/20 multiplied by 100. The answer is 40%.

Percentage formula in excel

The functions within excel allow the users for testing calculate discount pricing or any other type of percentage formula.

Excel is beneficial to calculate percentages as the formulas are already embedded within the software, although one needs to acquire information. It is a two-way process; hence, the cell formatting indicates the percent value. The other step is building the percent formula within the cell.

The formatted cells should be selected, after which the icon which is in % style should be clicked. The user has the freedom of increasing or decreasing decimal places. Excel performs calculations based on the underpinning value that might be the decimal point of 0.1. If one wants to double-check the underlying value of the calculations, then CTRL +1 will help.

Points to remember

One should remember some tips while performing calculations in excel.

Formatting values- If the percentage formatting is applied to the number cells, Excel will multiply it by 100 while adding a % sign at the end.
If the cell is formatted as 10/ 100, clicking on the percentage icon will result. If the numbers are depicted as 10%, the final percentage calculation will also show up. Also, one can directly apply decimal and then click the percentage button for results.
Rounding- If the user has typed 10%, the Excel might not give a round-off value. For example, the result might be 9.75%. To get a rounded value, increasing decimal places will do the needful.
Formatting empty cells- If they are formatted, they will behave differently. For instance, the number is automatically converted to a percentage if higher than one.

Conclusion

The percentage refers to conversion to percentage form by multiplication of numbers into the decimal value of 100. By manual methods, the calculation of percentage is done through many methods. Although, calculating from excel is much easier as results are obtained with just one click. The changes in values increasing or decreasing can be calculated through a percentage formula. The computational form of calculation is usually through excel, which eases the process by clicking the percentage icon on the taskbar.