Percentage Decreases

There are times when we need to know the increase or decrease in a certain quantity as percentage. For example, if the population of a state increased from 5,50,000 to 6,05,000. Then the increase in population can be understood better if we say, the population increased by 10 %. How do we convert the increase or decrease in a quantity as a percentage of the initial amount? Consider the following example.

Percentage increase =(amount of change/original amount or base)× 100

For example, A school team won 6 games this year against 4 games won last year. What is the per cent increase?

SOLUTION

Increase in the number of wins (or amount of change) = 6 – 4 = 2.
Percentage increase = (amount of change/original amount or base)× 100
(increase in the number of wins / original number of wins)×100 = 2/4 *100 = 50.