Percentage Increase Calculator

How to Calculate Percentage Increase

Percentage increase measures how much a value has grown relative to its starting point. It's used everywhere — from tracking salary raises and stock returns to monitoring website traffic growth and population changes. Understanding this calculation helps you make sense of change over time.

The Formula: ((New Value − Original Value) ÷ Original Value) × 100

The key insight is that you divide by the original value, not the new one. This anchors the change to where you started. A jump from 80 to 100 is a 25% increase, but a jump from 100 to 120 is only a 20% increase — even though both are a difference of 20.

Practical Examples

• Salary: Your annual salary went from $52,000 to $58,000. That's an 11.54% raise — well above the typical 3–4% cost-of-living adjustment.
• Rent: Monthly rent increased from $1,200 to $1,380. Enter these values above to find it's a 15% hike.
• Investment: A stock price rose from $45 to $63. That's a 40% gain. Learn how growth compounds over time in our guide on compound interest.
• Website traffic: Monthly visitors grew from 8,000 to 12,400 — a 55% increase worth celebrating.

Increase vs. Decrease

If the new value is actually lower than the original, the result will be negative — indicating a decrease, not an increase. For a dedicated tool, use our Percentage Decrease Calculator. You can also compare two values symmetrically with the Percentage Difference Calculator.

For a step-by-step walkthrough with more examples, read our article on how to calculate percentage increase.

Common Percentage Increase Examples

Use the quick-answer table below — every row links to the calculator with the values pre-filled so you can verify or tweak in one click.

Looking for a different base value? Just enter your own numbers in the calculator above — the same formula applies to any pair of values.