Percent

Percent is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100. The symbol "%" is used to indicate this relation. A value of 1% equals 1/100, or 0.01 in decimal form.

Calculations with percent follow simple relationships. Percent = (part / whole) × 100. Conversely, part = (percent / 100) × whole. To convert a decimal to percent, multiply by 100 and add the percent sign; to convert a percent to a decimal, divide by 100.

Percent is widely used to describe proportions in finance, statistics, demographics, science, and everyday measurements. It is commonly employed to report interest rates, growth, survey results, and changes over time, providing a standard, comparable scale across different contexts.

The term stems from the Latin per centum, meaning by the hundred. The percent sign, a stylized representation of “per cent,” appeared in Europe during the early modern period and became common in modern typography and mathematics.

Related concepts include basis points, where one basis point equals 0.01%, and per mille (‰), which denotes per thousand. The word “percentage” refers to the proportion itself, often expressed as a percent; in common usage, the two terms are closely related, with percent denoting the numeric value and symbol.