Numeracy skills - how to work out percentages

Good arithmetic is the foundation of numeracy skills, and learning how to work out percentages is an important foundational skill. Learn these, practice them and always keep to the same methods!

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Percentages are a very important part of our everyday lives and are easier to compare than fractions. They also sound a lot better – would you rather have 30% discount or 3/10 ths? – they’re both the same, although we are much more used to talking about a percentage discount.

Percentages are just another form of expressing a fraction. A percent always uses the same denominator (100) and therefore can be used to compare results or observe a trend. Exam grades would be less meaningful if they were given as 12/15 or 17/20.

It’s really important to learn about percentages. Just imagine how many times we encounter them in real life: