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What is the Percentage Difference from 4 to 21?

From 4 to 21 is a 425% increase

Step by step

  1. Difference: 21 − 4 = 17
  2. Divide by the starting value: 17 ÷ 4 = 4.25
  3. Multiply by 100: 425%

How the answer is worked out

Percentage change measures a difference against the value you started with. The value went from 4 to 21, a difference of 17. Compared with the starting value of 4, that difference is 425%, so this is a 425% increase.

The new value is 5.25 times the old one: for every 100 at the start there are now 525. The value has more than doubled.

Why calculate this?

Percentage change compares a new value with an old one regardless of size: price rises, growth, discounts, score changes.

  • Prices: an item whose price rises from $4 to $21 has gone up by 425%.
  • Pay: a wage that rises from $4 to $21 an hour is a 425% pay rise.
  • Audiences: a channel that grows from 4 to 21 subscribers has grown by 425%.

A quicker way

Find 1% of the starting value: 4 ÷ 100 = 0.04. The difference of 17 is 425 of those steps.

Percentage change is not the same as percentage points. If a rate moves from 4% to 21%, it changes by 17 percentage points, but by 425% relative to where it started.

Check the answer

Work forwards from the start: 4 × (1 + 4.25) = 4 × 5.25 = 21. Getting 21 shows the answer is right.

Rounding

Rounded to a whole number the change is 425, to one decimal place 425.0 and to two decimal places 425.00. Round only at the end: rounding halfway through a calculation can change the last digit.

The formula explained

percentage change = (new value − old value) ÷ old value × 100. A positive result is an increase and a negative result is a decrease. The old value is always the base, which is why the change from A to B and from B to A are different percentages.

Another worked example: 1 to 26

  1. Difference: 26 − 1 = 25
  2. Divide by the starting value: 25 ÷ 1 = 25
  3. Multiply by 100: 2,500%

Why the change back is different

A 425% rise followed by a 425% fall does not bring you back to 4: it gives -68.25. The second percentage is taken of 21, not of 4, so to undo this change you need 80.9524% instead.

Other ways to ask this

The same calculation is often asked in other words. All of these have the answer above:

  • Percentage increase from 4 to 21
  • What percent more is 21 than 4?
  • 4 to 21 as a percent change
  • How much did 4 grow going to 21, in percent?
  • Relative change between 4 and 21

Terms used on this page

  • Old value: the starting amount, used as the base of the percentage.
  • New value: the amount after the change.
  • Increase: a positive change: the new value is bigger.
  • Percentage point: the plain difference between two rates, not a relative change.

The answer in other forms

Change425%
Difference17
New ÷ old5.25
Directionincrease

Related results

4 to 19

From 4 to 19 is a 375% increase

4 to 20

From 4 to 20 is a 400% increase

4 to 22

From 4 to 22 is a 450% increase

4 to 23

From 4 to 23 is a 475% increase

4 to 31

From 4 to 31 is a 675% increase

The other way round: Percentage difference from 21 to 4

Doing it in a spreadsheet

In Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers type =(21-4)/4*100 into any cell. Replace the numbers with cell references (for example A1 and B1) to reuse the formula for a whole column.

Common mistakes

Always divide by the starting value, not the new one. A rise from 40 to 50 is +25%, but the fall from 50 back to 40 is −20%.

Practice examples

1 to 26
Show answer

From 1 to 26 is a 2,500% increase

25 to 49
Show answer

From 25 to 49 is a 96% increase

47 to 66
Show answer

From 47 to 66 is a 40.4255% increase

58 to 6
Show answer

From 58 to 6 is a 89.6552% decrease

36 to 53
Show answer

From 36 to 53 is a 47.2222% increase

75 to 20
Show answer

From 75 to 20 is a 73.3333% decrease

59 to 60
Show answer

From 59 to 60 is a 1.6949% increase

64 to 29
Show answer

From 64 to 29 is a 54.6875% decrease

19 to 2
Show answer

From 19 to 2 is a 89.4737% decrease

64 to 38
Show answer

From 64 to 38 is a 40.625% decrease

Calculate another

How this answer was calculated

The result is worked out from the numbers in this page's address when the page is opened, using exact arithmetic wherever possible and rounding only for display. Nothing is copied from a printed table. If you think an answer is wrong, please tell us through the contact page and we will check it.

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Questions

What is the Percentage Difference from 4 to 21?

Going from 4 to 21 is a 425% increase. Formula and steps.

Is going from 4 to 21 an increase or a decrease?

An increase: the value grew by 17, which is 425% of the starting value.

What is the percentage change from 21 back to 4?

-80.9524%. It is a different number because the starting value is now 21, not 4.

What is the percentage difference between 4 and 21?

When neither value is the starting point, use the average as the base: 17 ÷ 12.5 × 100 = 136%. That is the symmetric percentage difference.

How do I calculate percentage change in Excel or Google Sheets?

Put the old value in A1 and the new value in B1, then type =(B1-A1)/A1 and format the cell as a percentage. For these numbers it shows 425%.