The word percentage has its origin in the English percentage , a term used to write numbers under the guise of a fraction of one hundred . The symbol of this concept is the % , which is called “percent” and translates as “out of every hundred” .
For example: Ten percent is a percentage that is written as 10% and is understood as ten out of every hundred. If it is said that 10% of a group of thirty people have red hair, the sentence assumes that three of those people are redheads.
What is percentage
The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines this resource as a "x" percent . It can be said that the percentage is the amount that, proportionally, refers to a part of the total or the degree of useful performance that 100 units of a certain thing have under normal conditions.
Percent is also known as the term percentage that we are now addressing and that we can determine is one of the most used applications in the field of ratios and proportions. And it helps us to carry out the comparison between quantities.
It is important to emphasize the fact that when calculating percentages it must always be done using what are called directly proportional variables. What is meant by this is that it must be the case that if one of them increases, the other also does so and vice versa.
Different ways to calculate it
Specifically, when talking about percentages we have to emphasize that there can be three types of calculation of them. The first would consist of having to, starting from a total quantity, find the number that is equivalent to what is a partial percentage of it. An example would be having to calculate 50% of an inheritance of one million euros.
The second case would be, starting from a total amount and a part of it, establishing what percentage that part is equivalent to. A case that can serve as an example would be knowing what percentage 75 corresponds to in the number 140.
The third and last case would consist of calculating, from a partial amount and an established percentage, the total figure. Thus, we can know, for example, what total salary an employee earns based on the fact that we know that 500 euros is 60% of it.
Examples of percentage
A 15% increase in electricity service indicates that users will have to pay that surplus (15 units per hundred) in rates. Therefore, if the person paid $40 per month for said service, after the 15% increase, they will begin to pay $46. In other words, 6 is 15% of 40 (six is fifteen percent of forty, that is, the additional money to be paid after the increase).
A 10% cut in salaries, on the other hand, means that workers will begin to receive lower remuneration than they usually received. If a worker earned 1,000 pesos per month, after the cut he will begin to earn 900 pesos per month.