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Percentage Change Formula:
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Percentage change measures the degree of change over time and is used for many purposes in finance, statistics, and general mathematics. It shows how much a value has increased or decreased in percentage terms compared to its original value.
The calculator uses the percentage change formula:
Where:
Explanation: The formula calculates the relative difference between two values as a percentage of the original value. A positive result indicates an increase, while a negative result indicates a decrease.
Details: Percentage change is widely used in financial analysis (stock prices, inflation rates), business metrics (sales growth), scientific research (experimental results), and everyday life (price comparisons).
Tips: Enter the old (original) value and new (current) value. The calculator will automatically compute the percentage change and indicate whether it's an increase or decrease.
Note: The old value cannot be zero (division by zero is undefined).
Q1: What's the difference between percentage change and percentage difference?
A: Percentage change compares a new value to an old value, while percentage difference compares any two values without considering which is newer.
Q2: How do I interpret negative percentage change?
A: A negative percentage change indicates a decrease from the old value to the new value.
Q3: Why is percentage change useful?
A: It standardizes changes of different magnitudes to a common scale (percentages), making comparisons easier.
Q4: What if my old value is zero?
A: Percentage change is undefined when the old value is zero, as it would require division by zero.
Q5: How is percentage change different from percentage points?
A: Percentage change measures relative change, while percentage points measure absolute difference between percentages (e.g., 5% to 7% is a 2 percentage point increase but 40% change).