1. What is Percentage Increase?

Percentage increase measures how much a quantity has grown relative to its original value, expressed as a percentage. It's commonly used in finance, economics, statistics, and everyday life to track growth or expansion.

2. How Does the Calculator Work?

The calculator uses the percentage increase formula:

Where:

• New Value — The current or final value
• Old Value — The original or starting value

Explanation: The formula calculates the difference between the new and old values, divides by the old value to get the relative change, then multiplies by 100 to convert to a percentage.

3. Importance of Percentage Increase Calculation

Details: Percentage increase is crucial for understanding growth rates in business (revenue, profits), investments (stock prices, portfolio growth), population studies, and many other fields where relative change matters more than absolute change.

4. Using the Calculator

Tips: Enter both old and new values as positive numbers. The old value must be greater than zero (division by zero is undefined). Results are rounded to 2 decimal places.

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What if my percentage increase is negative?
A: A negative result indicates a percentage decrease rather than increase. The absolute value shows the magnitude of change.

Q2: How is this different from percentage points?
A: Percentage increase measures relative change from an original value, while percentage points measure absolute difference between two percentages.

Q3: What's a good percentage increase?
A: This depends entirely on context. In investments, higher is better. In costs, lower increases are preferred.

Q4: Can I use this for exponential growth?
A: This calculates simple percentage increase. For compound growth over multiple periods, you'd need compound growth rate calculations.

Q5: Why is the old value in the denominator?
A: Using the old value as the base makes the percentage increase relative to the starting point, which is the standard convention.