The use of percentages is a way of expressing ratios in terms of whole numbers. A ratio or fraction
is converted to a percentage by multiplying by 100 and appending a "percentage
sign" %. For example, if an investment grows from 
to 
, then 
is 
times as much as 
,
i.e., 173.08% of 
.
So it is also true that the investment has grown by 
. A change of a certain percent 
is sometimes said to be a change of percentage
points.
Percent
See also
Basis Point, Percentage Error, Percentage Point, PermilExplore with Wolfram|Alpha
References
Bringhurst, R. The Elements of Typographic Style, 2nd ed. Point Roberts, WA: Hartley and Marks, p. 282, 1997.Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha
PercentCite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Percent." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Percent.html