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 compare changes over time.

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

3. Practical Applications

Details: Percentage increase is used in financial analysis (stock growth, price changes), business metrics (sales growth), academic grading, population studies, and performance measurements.

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). 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 simply new value minus old value, while percentage increase shows the change relative to the original value.

Q2: How do I interpret a negative percentage increase?
A: A negative result 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 more than 100%?
A: Yes, this means the value has more than doubled (new value is more than twice the old 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.