Percentage Increase and Decrease Word Problems

Percentage Increase and Decrease Word Problems

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Real life percentage increase question, increasing a chocolate bar by 10%

  • To find 10%, divide a number by 10.
  • The original mass of chocolate is 200 grams.
  • 200 ÷ 10 = 10 and so 10% of 200 grams in 20 grams.
  • To increase an amount by 10%, add 10% to the original amount.
  • 200 + 20 = 220. Therefore the new mass is 220 grams

how to calculate simple percentages summary poster

Add the percentage to the original amount to increase by a percentage.

Subtract the percentage from the original amount to decrease by a percentage.

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Real life percentage decrease word question, decreasing the price of jeans by 40%

  • To find 40%, first find 10% and then multiply it by 4.
  • 10% is found by dividing the number by 10. £50 ÷ 10 = £5 and so, 10% is £5.
  • We multiply 10% by 4 to get 40%. £5 × 4 = £20 and so, 40% is £20.
  • In a sale, the price is decreased.
  • To decrease by a percentage, subtract the percentage from the original number.
  • £50 – £20 = £30 and so, the new price is £30.

Percentage Change Word Problems

How to Work out Percentage Change

To work out percentage change, follow these steps:

  1. Work out the percentage by dividing the original number by 100 and multiplying by the percentage.
  2. For a percentage increase, add this percentage to the original number.
  3. For a percentage decrease, subtract this percentage from the original number.

For example, in this percentage change question, we will increase $52 by 23%.

Step 1 is to find the percentage.

To find 23%, divide $52 by 100 and then multiply by 23.

finding a percentage of an amount 23% of $52

$52 ÷ 100 × 23 = $11.96. Therefore 23% of $52 is $11.96

We are going to increase the value by 23%.

Step 2 is to add the percentage to the original number.

increasing an amount of money in dollars by 23%

$52 + $11.96 = $63.96. Therefore $52 increased by 23% is $63.96

Here is another example with percentage decrease. We will decrease $75 by 36%.

finding 36% of $75

The first step is to find the percentage by dividing the amount by 100 and multiplying by the percentage.

$75 ÷ 100 × 36 = 27. Therefore 36% of $75 is $27.

This is a percentage decrease question.

The next step is to subtract the percentage from the original amount.

subtracting a percentage from an amount of money

Here are some common percentages that can be found without a calculator:

  • To find 1%, divide by 100.
  • To find 5%, divide by 20.
  • To find 10%, divide by 10.
  • To find 20%, divide by 5.
  • To find 25%, divide by 4.
  • To find 50%, divide by 2.

Percentage Increase Word Problems

Here is a real life example of word problems involving percentage increase.

Examples of percentages in real life

In this example, we increase the mass of a bar of chocolate by 10%

Real life percentage increase word question, increasing a chocolate bar by 10%

The first step is to work out the percentage value. We want to find 10%.

To find 10% of a number, divide it by 10.

Real life percentage increase worded question, increasing a chocolate bar by 10%

10% of 200 grams is 20 grams.

This is a percentage increase word problem, so we add the percentage to the initial amount.

Real life percentage increase question, increasing a chocolate bar by 10%

200 + 20 = 220 and so, the new mass of chocolate is 220 g.

Percentage Decrease Word Problems

Here is a real life example of word problems involving percentage decrease.

Real life percentage decrease worded question, decreasing the price of jeans by 40%

This is a percentage decrease problem because we want to find the new price of the item after it has gone on sale. A sale means that the price has gone down.

The first step is to find the percentage value.

40% is found by finding 10% and multiplying this by 4.

10% is £5 because £50 divided by 10 = £5.

Real life percentage decrease question, decreasing the price of jeans by 40%

We multiply 10% by 4 to find 40%. 40% is £20.

Real life percentage decrease worded question, decreasing the price of jeans by 40%

This is a percentage decrease question because we want to take 40% off the total price.

In a percentage decrease problem, subtract the percentage from the original amount.

£50 – £20 = £30 and so the sale price is £30.

Real life percentage decrease word question, decreasing the price of jeans by 40%

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Now try our lesson on Converting Percentages to Fractions where we learn how to write a percentage as a fraction.

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