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, statistics, and everyday calculations to compare growth rates.

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 initial value

Explanation: The formula calculates the relative change between two values by finding the difference, dividing by the original value, and converting to a percentage.

3. Practical Applications

Details: Percentage increase is widely used in:

• Financial analysis (stock growth, price changes)
• Business metrics (sales growth, revenue increase)
• Academic research (population growth, experimental results)
• Personal finance (salary increases, investment returns)

4. Using the Calculator

Tips:

• Enter both new and old values as positive numbers
• The old value cannot be zero (division by zero is undefined)
• Negative results indicate percentage decrease
• Results are rounded to 2 decimal places

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What's the difference between percentage increase and absolute increase?
A: Absolute increase is the simple difference (new - old), while percentage increase shows the relative change compared to the original value.

Q2: How do I interpret a negative percentage increase?
A: A negative result actually indicates a percentage decrease between the values.

Q3: What if my old value was zero?
A: Percentage change is undefined when starting from zero, as you cannot divide by zero mathematically.

Q4: Can I use this for percentage decrease calculations?
A: Yes, the same formula works for decreases (which will show as negative percentages).

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.