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 to track growth, inflation, performance improvements, and other changes over time.

2. How Does the Calculator Work?

The calculator uses the percentage increase formula:

Where:

• New Value — The current or final measurement
• Old Value — The original or initial measurement

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

3. Practical Applications

Details: Percentage increase is used in finance (investment returns), economics (price changes), business (sales growth), science (experimental results), and everyday life (salary negotiations).

4. Using the Calculator

Tips: Enter both values as positive numbers. The old value cannot be zero (division by zero is undefined). Results show how much the new value has increased compared to the old value as a percentage.

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What if my result is negative?
A: A negative result indicates a percentage decrease rather than increase.

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

Q3: What's considered a "good" percentage increase?
A: This depends entirely on context - a 5% salary increase might be good, while a 5% increase in product defects would be bad.

Q4: Can I calculate percentage decrease with this?
A: Yes, the result will simply be negative when the new value is smaller than the old value.

Q5: Why is the old value in the denominator?
A: This makes the increase relative to the starting point, allowing meaningful comparisons between different scales.