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Percentage Change Formula:
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Percentage change measures the relative difference between an old value and a new value, expressed as a percentage. It helps quantify growth, decline, or variation between two values over time.
The calculator uses the percentage change formula:
Where:
Explanation: The formula calculates the relative difference between two values. A positive result indicates an increase, while a negative result indicates a decrease.
Details: Percentage change is widely used in finance, economics, business, statistics, and everyday life to measure growth rates, price changes, performance improvements, and many other comparative analyses.
Tips: Enter both old and new values as positive numbers. The old value must be greater than zero to avoid division by zero errors. The calculator will automatically determine if the change is an increase or decrease.
Q1: What does a negative percentage change mean?
A: A negative percentage change indicates a decrease from the old value to the new value. For example, -15% means the value decreased by 15%.
Q2: Can percentage change be more than 100%?
A: Yes, percentage change can exceed 100% when the new value is more than double the old value. For example, going from 10 to 30 represents a 200% increase.
Q3: What if the old value is zero?
A: Percentage change cannot be calculated when the old value is zero because it would involve division by zero, which is mathematically undefined.
Q4: How is percentage change different from percentage point?
A: Percentage change measures relative difference between two values, while percentage points measure absolute difference between two percentages.
Q5: What are common applications of percentage change?
A: Common applications include stock price changes, sales growth, population changes, inflation rates, test score improvements, and many other comparative analyses.