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Percentage of a Number – Explanation & Examples

Percentage of a NumberThe terms percent and percentage are interchangeably used in many situations, but do they mean the same thing? 

Well, percent and percentage are slightly different in their usage but they have a similar meaning. Percent or the sign (%) is normally used accompanied by a numerical value.For example, we can say, 95 percent or 95% of the students are bright. Percentage on the other hand is generally used without a number to refer to the word percent. For example, we state that, the percentage of bright students is 95%.The percentage term was not very old but the method was common. When there was no decimal system, the Ancient Romans used to do calculations of fractions as the multiples of 1/100. For example, they imposed taxes on goods give by the fraction 1/100, which is equivalent to computing percentages. Later in the Middle Ages, the use of 1/100 fraction became more common.In the 17th century, a standard was set to quote interest rates as 1/100. After its frequent use, the mathematicians abbreviated it as “pc” in 14th century. Later came the term “per”, and finally in 1925, D.E. Smith gave it a symbol form (%).

What is the Percentage of a Number?

Percentage in mathematics is a number or ratio which can be represented as a fraction of 100. The term per cent originates from a Latin word ‘per centum’ which means per 100. The symbol (%) is used to denote percentage.Similarly, percentage is sometimes denoted by an abbreviation ‘pct.’ For example, we can express 50 percent as 50% or 50 pct. Percentages are written inform whole numbers, fractions or decimals. For example, 4%, 75%, 0.6%, 0.25%, 3/5% etc. are all percentages.Percentages are part of our daily lives in the following examples:
  • Discounts on commodities are represented in percentages
  • Financial institutions such as banks and SACCOS express the interest charged on loans in form of percentages.
  • Profits and losses are calculated in percentages
  • In academics, percentages are used to evaluate the performance of students
  • The values goods such cars and a piece of land changes with time. This can be represented inform of percentages.
For these reasons, possessing a knowledge on how to calculate percentages is not only helpful for you to excel in mathematics, but also to apply outside the class and solve practical problems involving percentages. This article provides a step by step tutorial on how to calculate percentages.

How to Calculate Percentage?

There are two possibilities of finding the percentage of a number:
  • To find the percentage of a number when it is in decimal form, you just need to multiply the decimal number by 100. For example, to convert 0.5 to a percentage, 0.5 x 100 = 50%.
  • The second case involves a fraction. If the given number is in fractional form, first convert it to a decimal value and multiply by 100. For example, to find the percentage of 1/6: 0.1666 x 100 = 16.7%.

Example 1

Calculate the percentages of the following:1. 25 of 200?

Solution

(25/200) × 100 Divide the numerator by denominator; = (1/8) × 100 = (1 × 100)/8 = 100/8 = 25/2 = 12 .5 %2. 95 out of 150?

Solution

(95/150) × 100 Simplify the fraction and multiply by 100 = (19/30) × 100 = (19 × 100)/30 = 1900/30 reduce the fraction; = 63 1/3 %3. 22 of 44?

Solution

(22/44) × 100 Simplify the fraction; = (1/2) × 100 = (1 × 100)/2 = 100/2 = 50%4. 30 of 150?

Solution

(30/150) × 100 Simplify the fraction; = (1/5) × 100 = (1 × 100)/5 = 100/5 = 20%5. 250 of 1200?

Solution

(250/1200) × 100 Cancel the numerator and denominator; = (5/24) × 100 = (5 × 100)/24 = 500/24 = 125/6 = 20 5/6 %6. 86 of 2580?

Solution

(86/2580) × 100 simplify the fraction by cancelling; = (1/30) × 100 = (1 × 100)/30 = 100/30 reduce the fraction; 10/3 = 3 1/3 %

Example 2

A class has a total of 120 students. Calculate the percentage of girls if they are 60 of them?

Solution

Total number of students in the class = 120Total number of girls = 60Therefore, the percentage of girls is calculated as:(60 × 100)/120= 600/12 = 50Hence, 50% of the students are girls.

Example 3

150 students are present in the school auditorium. If the number of boy and girls present in the hall is 80 and 70 respectively. Calculate the percentage of boys present in the auditorium?

Solution

Total number of students present in the auditorium = 150Number of boys = 80Percentage of boys = (80 x 100)/150= 53.33%How to Calculate Percentage?

Practice Questions

1. The number, $1350$, is what percent of $2700$?

2. To the nearest two decimal places, the number, $70$, is what percent of $210$?

3. To the nearest two decimal places, the number, $100$, is what percent of $450$?

4. Out of $500$ marks, James only scored $350$ marks. His brother, Peter, scored $620$ out of $800$ marks. In terms of percentage, who performed better between the two?

5. Christine bought a plot of land with an area of $4000$ squared meters. If she plans to use $2400$ squared meters of the land to construct an apartment complex, which of the following shows the percentage of unused land?

6. Alice runs a fruit shop and just received her restock of $400$ apples and $200$ bananas. Upon close inspecting, $12\%$ of apples and $24\%$ of bananas were rotten. How many percent of the fruits are in good condition?

7. Lorraine has a monthly salary of $\$1200$. If her monthly expenditure on food amounts to $\$480$. What percentage of her monthly salary does she allot for other expenditures and savings?

8. Sam scores $43$ out of $50$ in Mathematics, $62$ out of $75$ in Statistics, and $85$ out of $100$ in Physics. In which subject did he receive the highest percentage score?


 

Percentage of a Number List

Below is the list of Percentages of various numbers. The solution is just one click away.

What is 30 Percent of 25
What is 30 percent of 2000
What is 30 Percent of 15000
What is 10 Percent of 1000000
What is 15 Percent of 10000
What is 10 Percent of 80
What is 3.5 Percent of 400000
What is 15 Percent of 20000
What is 70 Percent of 30
What is 10 Percent of 20000
What is 2 Percent of 10000
What is 5 Percent of 25000
What is 40 Percent of 400
What is 10 Percent of 4000
What is 30 Percent of 30000
What is 75 Percent of 50
What is 10 Percent of 300000
What is 10 Percent of 2500
What is 30 Percent of 5000
What is 30 Percent of 10000
What is 5 Percent of 500000
What is 5 Percent of 200000
What is 15 Percent of 60000
What is 20 Percent of 40000
What is 5 Percent of 350000
What is 20 Percent of 15000
What is 5 Percent of 15000
What is 25 Percent of 1000
What is 40 Percent of 3000
What is 10 Percent of 90000
What is 20 Percent of 900
What is 2.5 Percent of 100
What is 30 Percent of 450
What is 40 Percent of 100
What is 30 Percent of 180
What is 15 Percent of 240
What is 25 Percent of 120
What is 20 Percent of 7000
What is 6 Percent of 1000
What is 80 Percent of 500
What is 5 Percent of 1200
What is 15 Percent of 400
What is 40 Percent of 500
What is 15 Percent of 1500
What is 60 Percent of 60
What is 5 Percent of 250000
What is 10 Percent of 120
What is 2 Percent of 500
What is 25 Percent of 150
What is 10 Percent of 25000
What is 50 Percent of 100
What is 10 Percent of 250
What is 12 Percent of 30000
What is 1 Percent of 500
What is 40 Percent of 800
What is 5 Percent of 2500
What is 15 Percent of 2500
What is 30 Percent of 280
What is 20 Percent of 250000
What is 60 Percent of 500
What is 20 Percent of 500000
What is 5 Percent of 4000
What is 20 Percent of 18000
What is 20 Percent of 35000
What is 75 Percent of 30
What is 30 Percent of 1200
What is 40 Percent of 150
What is 5 Percent of 300000
What is 14 Percent of 50
What is 60 Percent of 300
What is 7 Percent of 2000
What is 80 Percent of 200
What is 1.5 Percent of 1000
What is 3.5 Percent of 250000
What is 12 Percent of 25000
What is 60 Percent of 1200
What is 1.5 Percent of 100
What is 10 Percent of 70
What is 10 Percent of 1800
What is 10 Percent of 90
What is 40 Percent of 75
What is 15 Percent of 10000
What is 60 Percent of 2000
What is 60 Percent of 40
What is 3.5 Percent of 150000
What is 25 Percent of 1500
What is 40 Percent of 2000
What is 20 Percent of 700000
What is 70 Percent of 40
What is 40 Percent of 1000
What is 30 Percent of 4000
What is 40 Percent of 10000
What is 20 Percent of 1400
What is 12 Percent of 20000
What is 50 Percent of 150
What is 75 Percent of 16
What is 75 Percent of 60
What is 12 Percent of 1000
What is 60 Percent of 1500
What is 3.5 Percent of 300000
What is 10 Percent of 400000
What is 10 Percent of 100000000
What is 15 Percent of 1200
What is 15 Percent of 150
What is 75 Percent of 48
What is 14 Percent of 200
What is 35 Percent of 70
What is 70 Percent of 150
What is 20 Percent of 350
What is 30 Percent of 140
What is 20 Percent of 50000
What is 60 Percent of 180
What is 30 Percent of 70
What is 30 Percent of 1300
What is 70 Percent of 120
What is 50 Percent of 50
What is 5 Percent of 240
What is 40 Percent of 180
What is 60 Percent of 5000
What is 30 Percent of 750
What is 10 Percent of 3500
What is 50 Percent of 80
What is 25 Percent of 125
What is 60 Percent of 110
What is 25 Percent of 4000
What is 3 Percent of 1400
What is 60 Percent of 140
What is 60 Percent of 3000
What is 35 Percent of 180
What is 25 Percent of 3000
What is 80 Percent of 80
What is 80 Percent of 30
What is 75 Percent of 200
What is 40 Percent of 35
What is 70 Percent of 80
What is 2.5 Percent of 80000
What is 50 Percent of 8
What is 20 Percent of 240
What is 18 Percent of 50
What is 20 Percent of 90000
What is 10 Percent of 6000
What is 70 Percent of 100
What is 25 Percent of 8
What is 30 Percent of 130
What is 4 Percent of 5000
What is 3 Percent of 4000
What is 50 Percent of 600
What is 90 Percent of 30
What is 75 Percent of 180
What is 60 Percent of 360
What is 20 Percent of 100
What is 3 Percent of 2500
What is 0.05 Percent of 1000
What is 3 Percent of 3500
What is 3 Percent of 30000
What is 80 Percent of 90
What is 50 Percent of 250
What is 20 Percent of 220
What is 20 Percent of 10000
What is 20 Percent of 200000
What is 20 Percent of 1500
What is 70 Percent of 60
What is 8 Percent of 100
What is 12.5 Percent of 40
What is 45 Percent of 600
What is 60 Percent of 35
What is 12 Percent of 400
What is 5 Percent of 450
What is 3 Percent of 400
What is 25 Percent of 28
What is 20 Percent of 230
What is 25 Percent of 16
What is 3 Percent of 800
What is 90 Percent of 50
What is 45 Percent of 120
What is 5 Percent of 150
What is 25 Percent of 15
What is 2 Percent of 2000

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