Many times, people measure increases as raw numbers, such a budget increase of $1 million or a pay raise of $3,000. However, for statistical purposes, sometimes people measure increases in percentages. This gives context for the increase by comparing the amount of the increase relative to the original amount. For example, if the federal government increases spending by $1 million, in 2011 that is fairly insignificant increase. However, if your salary increases by $1 million, the significance of the increase would be much greater. Calculating the percentage of the increase will make its significance clear.
Instructions
-
-
1
Calculate the difference between how much you started with and how much you ended with. For example, if your annual budget was $23 million last year and has increased to $25 million, subtract $23 million from $25 million to get a raw increae of $2 million.
-
2
Divide the raw increase by the initial amount. In this example, divide your raw increase of $2 million by the starting amount of $23 million to get 0.08696.
-
-
3
Multiply the rate of increase by 100 to find the percent of increase. Concluding the example, multiply 0.08696 by 100 to find the percent of increase equals 8.696 percent.