What is a percentage?

A percentage is the most useful way to represent any data in the real world and therefore you’ll see it everywhere. A percent is basically “per cent” or “per hundred” i.e. a number divided by 100 gives us the percent of that number.

A percent is represented by “%” symbol. (press Shift + 5 in a keyboard to get a percent symbol)

How to calculate percentage?

For calculating a percentage, we need two numbers. First number is the actual value and the second number is the total value. Dividing the actual value by total value and multiplying the result by 100 gives us the percentage.

A percent is calculated based on the following formula:

Percent = ( Actual Value ÷ Total Value ) x 100

How to calculate percentage?

For calculating a percentage, we need two numbers. First number is the actual value and the second number is the total value. Dividing the actual value by total value and multiplying the result by 100 gives us the percentage.

A percent is calculated based on the following formula:

Percent = ( Actual Value ÷ Total Value ) x 100

Examples of percentage

Example-1: If you scored 76 marks out of 100 marks in your English exam, then what is the percentage of marks you scored?

The answer is 76%

How? It’s simple. Just apply the above formula.

Percent = ( 76 ÷ 100 ) x 100 = 76%

This was easy. Let’s take a different example.

Example-2: If you scored 429 marks out of 500 marks in all your subjects in the school exam, then what is the percentage of marks you scored?

The answer is 85.8%

This is a bit tricky but simple. See the application of the same formula.

Percent = ( 429 ÷ 500 ) x 100 = 85.8%

Now you got the understanding of how the percentages are calculated in the real world.

Calculate Percentage in Excel

In this section you will learn to calculate percentages in Excel using formulas. Not only this, you will also learn how to format a cell to correctly display the percent with the % symbol.

We have taken Example-1 from the above section and calculated it using Excel. By default, Excel will show values in decimal points. You will learn how to format it properly using % symbol later in this section. For now, see how the formula is applied below.

See, the same formula is used in Excel to calculate the percentage. Here, actual value is in cell B2 and total value is in cell C2. You must be wondering that we have not used multiply by 100 in the formula. And you are right. 

This is related to how Excel works. We multiply by 100 and put % symbol to the final result when we are not using the Excel to calculate percentages. But, when using Excel, this process is automated by formatting the particular cell that holds the result. See the image below.

Here is another way to format the cell for showing percentage with % symbol.

Right Click on the cell then select Format Cell and then click on Percent from the menu on the left hand side.