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 in financial, statistical, and scientific contexts.

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 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 widely used in:

• Financial analysis (stock growth, revenue increases)
• Sales performance tracking
• Population growth studies
• Scientific experiments measuring change
• Price inflation calculations

4. Using the Calculator

Tips:

• Enter both values in the same units
• The old value cannot be zero (division by zero is undefined)
• Negative results indicate percentage decrease

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 represents a percentage decrease between the values.

Q3: Why do I get a very large percentage when starting from a small number?
A: Percentage change is relative - small absolute changes appear large when the baseline is small (e.g., going from 1 to 2 is a 100% increase).

Q4: What if my old value was zero?
A: Percentage change is undefined when starting from zero, as it would require division by zero.

Q5: How does this differ from percentage points?
A: Percentage points measure absolute difference between percentages (e.g., 5% to 7% is a 2 percentage point increase but a 40% increase).