How to calculate percentage in Excel?
The different percentage calculation types are:
[vtftable ]
;;;E.G.;nn;
Percentage of a Number;;;What is 25% of 50?;nn;
Percentage as a Proportion;;;E.g. If a flight have to fly 1000 KM from it’s origin, and now it flied 780KM. How many % of journey have it completed?;nn;
Percentage Change;;;E.G. If you got a pay raise from $2,000 per week to $2,100 per week. What is the percentage of your pay raised?;nn;
[/vtftable]
This page will go through :
- How to Calculate a Percentage of a Number
- How to Calculate a Percentage as a Proportion
- How to Calculate Percentage Change
However, beforehand, let’s have a look at those Operators in Excel vs Standard operators in Mathematics.
| Operator Name | Excel | Standard Mathematics | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Brackets | ( | (, [, { | Excel support multiple nest brackets. However, it simply reuse the same type of brackets. |
| Close Brackets | ) | ) ] } | Excel support multiple nest brackets. However, it simply reuse the same type of brackets. |
| Exponent | ^ (e.g. 3 ^ 2) | Superscribe (e.g. 3 2) | |
| Multiple | * | X | |
| Division | / | / | |
| Plus | + | + | |
| Minus | - | - |
Operators in Excel vs Standard operators
Ref: Common Excel Interview Questions
How to calculate the percentage of a number?
If you want to calculate a percentage of a number in Excel, simply multiply the percentage value by the number that you want the percentage of.
Question: What is 25% of 50?
Following is the formula:
[vtftable ]
{f1}Standard Maths;;;{f1}Excel;nn;
= 25% X 50;;;=25% * 50;nn;
= 50 X 25%;;;= 50 * 25%;nn;
[/vtftable]
Note: As metioned from the Operators in Excel vs Standard operators table above, the operator of “X” in computer is “*”
Therefore, to calculate 25% of 50, type the following formula into any Excel cell:
– which gives the result 12.5.
How to calculate the percentage as a Proportion
If you want to calculate percentage as a proportion (i.e. calculate the size of a sample as a percentage of a full set), simply divide the sample size by the size of the full set.
For example, If a flight have to fly 1000 KM from it’s origin, and now it flied 780KM. Now we want to find out how many % of journey have it completed?
The percentage is calculated by simply dividing 780 by 1000.
[vtftable ]
;;;Standard Maths;;;Excel;nn;
Formula;;;=(780/1000) X 100;;;=780 / 1000;nn;
Result;;;=78 %;;;=0.78;nn;
[/vtftable]
Note: The excel formula only returned a result of 0.78. The next things is to convert the number “0.78” into percentage format:
Please refer to following blogs for How to change data format in Excel
How to calculate percentage change
Question: If you got a pay raise from $2,000 per week to $2,100 per week. What is the percentage of your pay raised?
Let’s take some notes:
Old Rate: 2000
New Rate: 2100
[vtftable ]
{f1}Standard Maths;;;{f1}Excel;nn;
Formula;;;((New Rate – Old rate)/Old rate) * 100%;;;(New Rate – Old rate)/Old rate;nn;
;;;=(2100 – 2000)/ 2000 * 100%;;;=(2100 – 2000)/2000;nn;
Result;;;=5%;;;=0.05;nn;
[/vtftable]
Note: Again! Most likely the the result from excel only be 0.05, instead of 5%. To convert the value 0.05 into 5% you need to change the format of the cell again.
Please refer to following blogs for How to change data format in Excel