Percentage Tutorial

Percentage Tutorial & Calculators - Part 1

Learning to calculate percentages is not that difficult.
The term percent comes from Latin and means "for every hundred".
So when you hear a statistic such as "10% of all people are left-handed" that means, for every hundred people, 10 are left-handed.

Finding Percentages

You've heard the commercial about "4 out of 5 dentists recommending sugarless gum..." so, what percentage is this?

We need to find what four fifths of one hundred is.

Using this formula:
(amount ÷ total) × 100 = percentage

we get:
4 ÷ 5 × 100 = .8 × 100 = 80%

Percentage problems fall into one of three categories and you are asked to calculate one of 3 things (or variables) and these problems are typically worded in one of 3 ways:
A ) 4 is what percent of 5 ?
B ) 80 percent of 5 equals what number ?
C ) 4 is 80 percent of what number ?
In order to use this calculator, first click the category (A, B or C), then enter the numbers in the first and third boxes, then click CALCULATE.

Use the above 3 examples for practice.

Percentages get a little trickier when there are many variables involved.
Example In an election 2,268 people voted for Smith, 8,820 people voted for Jones and 1,512 people voted for Robinson. What percentage of the votes did each candidate receive?
First, we have to get a total of ALL the votes.
2,268 + 8,820 + 1,512 = 12,600 Then we can calculate percentages for each candidate by: (2,268 ÷ 12,600) × 100 = 18% (8,820 ÷ 12,600) × 100 = 70% (1,512 ÷ 12,600) × 100 = 12%

These type of percentage calculations are made easier by using this calculator which allows you to input up to 10 numbers. When you click CALCULATE, it will display the percentages of each amount. As an added bonus, the total and average will be displayed. For practice, you could use the election example above.

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