What is the Percentage Difference from 40 to 55?
From 40 to 55 is a 37.5% increase
Step by step
- Difference: 55 − 40 = 15
- Divide by the starting value: 15 ÷ 40 = 0.375
- Multiply by 100: 37.5%
How the answer is worked out
Percentage change measures a difference against the value you started with. The value went from 40 to 55, a difference of 15. Compared with the starting value of 40, that difference is 37.5%, so this is a 37.5% increase.
The new value is 1.375 times the old one: for every 100 at the start there are now 137.5.
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 $40 to $55 has gone up by 37.5%.
- Pay: a wage that rises from $40 to $55 an hour is a 37.5% pay rise.
- Audiences: a channel that grows from 40 to 55 subscribers has grown by 37.5%.
A quicker way
Find 1% of the starting value: 40 ÷ 100 = 0.4. The difference of 15 is 37.5 of those steps.
Percentage change is not the same as percentage points. If a rate moves from 40% to 55%, it changes by 15 percentage points, but by 37.5% relative to where it started.
Check the answer
Work forwards from the start: 40 × (1 + 0.375) = 40 × 1.375 = 55. Getting 55 shows the answer is right.
Rounding
Rounded to a whole number the change is 38, to one decimal place 37.5 and to two decimal places 37.50. 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: 8 to 9
- Difference: 9 − 8 = 1
- Divide by the starting value: 1 ÷ 8 = 0.125
- Multiply by 100: 12.5%
Why the change back is different
A 37.5% rise followed by a 37.5% fall does not bring you back to 40: it gives 34.375. The second percentage is taken of 55, not of 40, so to undo this change you need 27.2727% 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 40 to 55
- What percent more is 55 than 40?
- 40 to 55 as a percent change
- How much did 40 grow going to 55, in percent?
- Relative change between 40 and 55
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
| Change | 37.5% |
|---|---|
| Difference | 15 |
| New ÷ old | 1.375 |
| Direction | increase |
Related results
| 40 to 53 | From 40 to 53 is a 32.5% increase |
| 40 to 54 | From 40 to 54 is a 35% increase |
| 40 to 56 | From 40 to 56 is a 40% increase |
| 40 to 57 | From 40 to 57 is a 42.5% increase |
| 40 to 65 | From 40 to 65 is a 62.5% increase |
The other way round: Percentage difference from 55 to 40
Doing it in a spreadsheet
In Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers type =(55-40)/40*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
| 8 to 9 | Show answerFrom 8 to 9 is a 12.5% increase |
| 77 to 73 | Show answerFrom 77 to 73 is a 5.1948% decrease |
| 42 to 51 | Show answerFrom 42 to 51 is a 21.4286% increase |
| 30 to 66 | Show answerFrom 30 to 66 is a 120% increase |
| 86 to 35 | Show answerFrom 86 to 35 is a 59.3023% decrease |
| 42 to 56 | Show answerFrom 42 to 56 is a 33.3333% increase |
| 31 to 38 | Show answerFrom 31 to 38 is a 22.5806% increase |
| 36 to 20 | Show answerFrom 36 to 20 is a 44.4444% decrease |
| 25 to 27 | Show answerFrom 25 to 27 is a 8% increase |
| 23 to 44 | Show answerFrom 23 to 44 is a 91.3043% increase |
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 40 to 55?
Going from 40 to 55 is a 37.5% increase. Formula and steps.
Is going from 40 to 55 an increase or a decrease?
An increase: the value grew by 15, which is 37.5% of the starting value.
What is the percentage change from 55 back to 40?
-27.2727%. It is a different number because the starting value is now 55, not 40.
What is the percentage difference between 40 and 55?
When neither value is the starting point, use the average as the base: 15 ÷ 47.5 × 100 = 31.5789%. 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 37.5%.