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 the new and old values, divides by the original value to get the relative change, then converts to a percentage by multiplying by 100.

3. Practical Applications

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

4. Using the Calculator

Tips: Enter both new and old values. The old value cannot be zero (division by zero is undefined). Values can be positive or negative, but negative results indicate a decrease rather than an increase.

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What's the difference between percentage increase and absolute increase?
A: Absolute increase is simply new value minus old value, while percentage increase shows the change relative to the original value.

Q2: How to interpret negative percentage increase?
A: A negative result actually indicates a percentage decrease rather than an increase.

Q3: What if my old value was zero?
A: Percentage change is undefined when starting from zero, as it would require division by zero.

Q4: Can percentage increase be over 100%?
A: Yes, percentages over 100% indicate the new value is more than double the original value.

Q5: How is this different from percentage points?
A: Percentage points measure absolute difference between percentages, while percentage increase measures relative change from an original value.