What is Percentage Increase?
A percentage increase tells you how much a quantity has grown relative to its starting point, expressed as a percentage of that original value. It's the mathematical language of growth — used to describe salary raises, price hikes, revenue growth, population expansion, investment returns, and countless other upward changes.
Understanding percentage increase allows you to compare growth across different scales meaningfully. A startup growing from $10,000 to $15,000 revenue shows a 50% increase — the same rate as a company growing from $10M to $15M. The absolute numbers are worlds apart, but the growth rate is identical. This proportional perspective is what makes percentage increase so powerful for analysis and decision-making.
The Percentage Increase Formula
📐 Percentage Increase = ((New Value − Original Value) ÷ Original Value) × 100
The original value is always the denominator (divisor). You subtract the original from the new to get the amount of increase, then divide by the original to express that increase proportionally, then multiply by 100 to convert to a percentage.
Worked Examples
Example 1: Salary Raise
Your salary increased from $45,000 to $51,750. What's the percentage increase?
(51,750 − 45,000) ÷ 45,000 × 100 = 6,750 ÷ 45,000 × 100 = 15%
Example 2: Product Price Hike
A subscription went from $9.99 to $12.99 per month.
(12.99 − 9.99) ÷ 9.99 × 100 = 3.00 ÷ 9.99 × 100 ≈ 30.03%
Example 3: Website Traffic Growth
Monthly visitors grew from 8,500 to 11,900.
(11,900 − 8,500) ÷ 8,500 × 100 = 3,400 ÷ 8,500 × 100 = 40%
Key Concepts
Base Effect: Percentage increase is highly sensitive to the starting value. A small absolute increase on a tiny base appears as a dramatic percentage increase. This is why early-stage companies can show 500% growth while an established firm might celebrate 10% — both might represent equally impressive performance given their scale.
Repeated Increases Are Compound: If a value increases by 10% one year and 10% the next, the total increase over two years is not 20% — it's 21%. This is because the second 10% is calculated on the already-increased new base. Use our Percentage Rate Growth calculator for multi-period compound calculations.
Common Applications
- Salary negotiations: Understand what a raise percentage means in dollar terms — and vice versa
- Inflation tracking: Consumer Price Index (CPI) is expressed as percentage increase over previous year
- Business KPIs: Month-over-month and year-over-year revenue growth, user growth, conversion rate improvements
- Investment returns: Stock performance, portfolio growth, property appreciation
- Academic performance: Score improvements from one test to the next
| Original | New Value | Increase Amount | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 110 | 10 | 10% |
| 200 | 250 | 50 | 25% |
| 500 | 600 | 100 | 20% |
| 1,000 | 1,500 | 500 | 50% |
| 75 | 100 | 25 | 33.33% |