Looking to calculate percentages? Let us do the work for you! Use our percentage calculator to find out the percentage of a given value or find a value for a certain percent of a number. Sound confusing? What is a percentage anyway? A percentage is an amount out of one hundred and is represented by the % sign. For example, 25% is representative of 25 out of 100 or 25/100, which is most commonly seen as the reduced fraction, 1/4.
Calculating a percentage is useful for several things, such as, figuring your 15% gratuity to leave for a server or determining what percent of your take home pay is your mortgage or car payment. Understanding what percentages are and how they are used is important for everyday life.
In order to calculate a percent of a number you simply divide by 100 or move the decimal point to the left 2 places. If you want to know 15% of a $70 dinner you simply move the decimal point to the left 2 places for the percentage value of 15.0. This leaves you with 0.15. Multiply 70 times 0.15 (70 * 0.15) to find 15% of $70 is $10.50.
This can be a little confusing if you are calculating a fraction of a percent. If you a calculating 1/2% then you would take 0.5% and move the decimal point over 2 spaces to the left leaving you with .005. Multiply this times your value to find 1/2%. Just remember to always move the decimal point before you multiply.
Another area that might be confusing is if you are trying to calculate an investment, or adding a percentage to a number. For example, if you get a 5% raise at work and you want to find out your new pay amount. You have to add the percentage to the old pay to find the new pay. You could also do this simply by multiplying by 1.05. If you are making $1,000 a week and get a 5% raise you would multiply $1,000 by 1.05 to find out you are now making $1,050.
Save yourself the confusion and keep from making a costly accounting error by allowing our percentage calculators do the calculations for you. To calculate percent change, fill in both the Number 1 and Number 2 fields. To calculate the percentage of a number, fill in both the Number 1 and Percent fields.
