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Lesson 1

What is a Percentage?

Understanding the basics of percentages and what they represent.

  • beginner

Formula

Percentage = (Part / Whole) × 100

📚 What is a Percentage?

A percentage is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100. The word "percent" comes from Latin "per centum" meaning "by the hundred".

When we say 25%, we mean 25 out of 100, or 25/100, or 0.25 as a decimal.

Percentage = (Part / Whole) × 100

✨ Visual Understanding

Think of a pizza divided into 100 slices:

1
If you eat 25 slices, you've eaten 25% of the pizza
2
If you eat 50 slices, you've eaten 50% (half) of the pizza
3
If you eat all 100 slices, you've eaten 100% of the pizza

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a percentage?

A percentage expresses a number as a part of 100. The word comes from the Latin per centum, by the hundred: 25% means 25 out of every 100, which is 25/100 or 0.25.

Why are percentages useful?

They put different quantities on the same scale, so 3 out of 4 and 75 out of 100 are both 75% and can be compared at a glance, in discounts, interest rates, grades and statistics alike.

Practice

Work each one out, then check yourself.

  1. If a class has 100 students and 30 are boys, what percentage are boys?

    Hint: Since there are 100 students total, the number of boys IS the percentage!

    Show answer

    30

Final Quiz

0/3

Test what you learned. Pick the correct answer for each question.

  1. What does 25% mean?

    What does 25% mean?

  2. A class has 100 students. 40 are girls. What percent are girls?

    A class has 100 students. 40 are girls. What percent are girls?

  3. Which decimal equals 80%?

    Which decimal equals 80%?