Percentage Increase Calculator

The calculator determines the percentage increase from one number value to another. You can also use it as a growth rate or price increase calculator.

Directions for use

• To calculate the percentage increase, enter the Starting Value and the Final Value into their respective fields and press "Calculate."
• You can press "Enter" on your keyboard to start the calculation.
• The calculator accepts whole and decimal numbers as inputs.
• The numbers can be both positive and negative.
• If you have to calculate percentage increase for fractions, you will need to perform the fraction-to-decimal conversion.
• Note that if you enter a fraction in one of the fields, the calculator will automatically disregard everything that comes after the fraction - bar. For example, if you enter "4/5," the calculator will see it as "4."

Calculating percentage increase

The percentage increase can be calculated as follows:

1. Calculate the increase by subtracting the starting value from the final value:

Increase = Final Value – Starting Value

2. Divide the increase by the absolute value of the starting value to get the decimal expression of the increase:

Decimal Increase = Increase /|Starting Value|

3. Finally, multiply the decimal increase by 100 to get a percentage increase:

Percentage Increase = Decimal Increase × 100

The steps above can be combined into the percentage increase formula:

Percentage Increase = ((Final Value - Starting Value) /|Starting Value|) × 100

Note that in step 1 of the algorithm and in the numerator of the percentage increase formula, you are using the given numbers as they are, including their signs. While in step 2, as well as in the denominator of the percentage increase formula, you are using the absolute value of the starting number.

Consequently, there is a chance that the final Percentage Increase value will be negative. That will happen if the starting value is greater than the final value, meaning that the corresponding change is a percentage decrease rather than a percentage increase. The calculator will report it as a percentage decrease. However, in this explanation, we will focus on situations where the final value exceeds the starting value.

Example

For example, let’s calculate percentage increase from -10 to 68.

In this case:

Starting Value = -10

Final Value = 68

|Starting value| = |-10| = 10

Following the solution steps above, we get:

Increase = 68 – (-10) = 78

Decimal Increase = 78/|-10|= 78/10 = 7.8

Percentage increase = 7.8 × 100 = 780%

Or, using the percentage formula, we can calculate the answer as follows:

Percentage increase = [{68 – (-10)} / 10] × 100 = 780%

The change from -10 to 68 amounts to 780%.

Calculation examples

Growth rate

Growth rate monitoring is essential for estimating the development of any company. Various companies focus on different types of growth rates: revenue growth rate, user growth rate, and many others. The growth rate over a period of time is measured in percentages and is equivalent to the percentage increase. Therefore, you can use the percentage increase calculator to calculate growth rates over the necessary periods of time.

Example 1. Calculating growth rate in terms of the company's revenue

Imagine you started a small company and need to produce a financial report to figure out how fast the company is developing. The company started operation on March 1st and generated $1265.70 in revenue in the first month. In August, the company generated $1879.30. You set a goal of achieving a 30% revenue growth rate within the first 6 months of operation. Did you achieve your goal?

Solution

Starting Value = $1265.70

Final Value = $1879.30

To determine whether you achieved the goal, you have to calculate the revenue growth rate from March to August and compare it with the target value of 30%. The growth rate is equivalent to a percentage increase. Therefore, we can follow the steps described above for the calculation:

Final value – initial value = 1879.30 - 1265.70 = 613.60

Decimal growth rate = 613.60 / 1265.70 = 0.4847910 ≈ 0.48

Growth rate = 0.48 × 100 = 48%

You have achieved a 48% revenue growth rate within the first 6 months of the company's operation, which significantly exceeds your goal!

To use the percentage increase calculator to determine growth rate, enter 1265.70 in the Starting Value field, 1879.30 in the Final Value field, and press "Calculate." The calculator will display the following answer: 48.4791% increase. Since the first number after the decimal sign, 4, is smaller than 5, the decimal part of the number can be approximated as zero: 48.4791% ≈ 48%.

Answer

The growth rate of your company in the first half a year of operation amounted to about 48%, which significantly exceeds the target value of 30%. Well done!

Price increase

The percentage increase is often used to determine a stock's price increase over a certain period. Tracking the price change of stocks is a valuable tool in the investment decision process.

Example 2. Calculating price increase of stock shares

Imagine your friend John bought some stock shares on June 1st. At the time of purchase, the stock price per share amounted to $15.65. After a month, on July 1st, the price of a share of stock increased to $16.70 per share. What is John's share value percentage increase?

Solution

Starting Value = $15.65

Final Value = $16.70

To determine John's share value price increase, we need to calculate the percentage increase of the price of a share of stock that he bought. We need to follow the steps for calculating the percentage increase:

Final Value – Starting Value = 16.70 – 15.65 = 1.05

Decimal price increase = 1.05/15.65 ≈ 0.067 ≈ 0.07

Percentage price increase = 0.07 × 100 = 7%

Therefore, John's share value percentage increase one month after the purchase amounts to 7%.

To use the percentage increase calculator to solve this problem, enter 15.65 in the Starting Value field, 16.70 in the Final Value field, and press "Calculate." The calculator will display the following answer: 6.70927% increase. Since the first number after the decimal point is a 7, and 7 is greater than 5, the number can be approximated as follows: 6.70927% ≈ 7%.

Answer

One month after the purchase, John's share value price increased by about 7%.