Percentage Change Calculator
Calculate the percentage increase or decrease between two values.
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Enter an initial value and a final value and this calculator tells you the percentage increase or decrease between them, along with the raw difference. It answers questions like how much a salary grew after appraisal, how far a share price fell, or how much a grocery bill rose since last year.
The formula
Percentage change = (final − initial) ÷ initial × 100
The result is labelled Increase or Decrease and shown to two decimal places without a sign, and the Difference line shows final minus initial, which is negative for a fall.
Worked examples
| Initial → Final | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| ₹45,000 → ₹52,000 | 7,000 ÷ 45,000 × 100 | 15.56% increase |
| 80 → 60 | −20 ÷ 80 × 100 | 25% decrease |
| 150 → 100 | −50 ÷ 150 × 100 | 33.33% decrease |
The first row is a typical salary revision: a monthly salary going from ₹45,000 to ₹52,000 is a 15.56% hike. If you want to go the other way and find the new salary from a given hike percentage, the salary hike calculator does that.
Why a rise and a fall are not symmetric
Going from 100 to 150 is a 50% increase, but coming back from 150 to 100 is only a 33.33% decrease, because the second change is measured against a larger starting value. This catches people out with investments: a portfolio that drops 50% needs a 100% gain just to get back to where it started. It is also why a 20% price rise followed by a 20% discount does not bring you back to the original price: 100 becomes 120, and 20% off 120 is 96, so you end up 4% below where you started.
Percent vs percentage points
When the values are themselves percentages, be precise with wording. If a bank raises an FD rate from 6.5% to 7%, the rate went up by 0.5 percentage points, but the percentage change is 0.5 ÷ 6.5 × 100 = 7.69%. News reports on interest rates, inflation and exam pass rates often mix the two up. Enter 6.5 and 7 here and you get the 7.69% figure; the Difference line gives you the percentage points.
When the result is misleading
- Initial value of zero: any change from zero is infinite in percentage terms, so the calculator shows an error. Report the absolute change instead.
- Negative starting values: if a business goes from a loss of 50 to a profit of 25, the formula divides by a negative number and the label reads "Decrease 150%" even though things improved. For profit and loss swings, describe the change in rupees rather than as a percentage.
- Tiny bases: a jump from 2 to 10 customers is a 400% increase, which sounds far more impressive than the eight people it represents.
To find what a percentage of a number is, rather than the change between two numbers, use the percentage calculator.