Percent Change in Excel | How to Calculate Percentage Change in Excel?

Percent Change in Excel (Table of Contents)

Excel Percent Change
How to Calculate Percent Change?
Examples of Percent Change Formula

Excel Percent Change

When you compare a one-period number with another period we usually tell the variance in percentages, not in variance numbers. For example, last month Office Expenses is 10K and current month Office Expenses is 11.5K, so we tell variance as Office Expenses increased by 15%. Similarly, last quarter sales were USD 15K and current monthly sales are USD 12.5K, then we tell the difference in percentage as sales reduced by -16.67%. So, in this article, we are going to show you live and practical examples of percent change formula in excel.

How to Calculate Percent Change Formula in Excel?

To calculate percent change we need at least two numbers from the different time period. Below is the formula to calculate percent change in general.

Percent Change = (New Value – Old Value) / Old Value

Percent Change = New Value / Old Value – 1

For an example Company, ABC has achieved the revenue of USD 15 K in the previous week and current week revenue is USD 20 K, what is the percentage change in revenue when we compare to the previous week.

In this example, we have two numbers i.e. Previous Week & Current Week. As per the formula, Old Value is Previous Week Number and New Value is Current Week Number.

Percent Change = (New Value – Old Value) / Old Value

Percent Change = (20000 – 15000) / 15000
Percent Change = 5000 / 15000
Percent Change = 33.33%

The same calculation can be done by using excel simple formulas. Now we will see how to solve these problems in excel worksheet.

Examples of Percent Change Formula

Below are some of the examples of how to calculate percent change formula in excel.

You can download this Percent Change Excel Template here – Percent Change Excel Template

Percent Change in Excel Example #1

Below is the revenue on year basis from past 10 years.

So, from this data, we need to find what the year on year percentage change in revenue is. Copy the above data to a worksheet.

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Here first-year percentage change is nil because to compare that year number we need previous year number, so it is not available. From the second year onwards we can calculate the percentage difference.

Apply the excel formula as (New Value – Old Value) / Old Value.

This will calculate the % change in revenue between 2008 & 2009.

So revenue has been decreased by -15.75% from 2008 to 2009.

Copy and paste the formula to the remaining cells to see the year on percent change.

Apply below formatting to see the negative percentage in red color.

We get the following result.

This is one way of finding percentage change year on year. Another way of finding the percentage change is between base year (first year) and the remaining year.

For this, our formula Old Value remains the same for all the years. In this data Old Value is the year 2008.

Apply the above formula to all the remaining cells to see the percentage change between the first year and last year.

So from the first year to last year revenue has been decreased by 20.98%. Only year revenue was increased is in the year 2016 by 10.08% which is highest.

Percent Change in Excel Example #2

We have seen how to calculate the percentage change between two values. Now we will see how to increase the number by a certain percentage.

Assume you are working as HR and you have received a salary increment percentage after appraisal. You have a current salary and also you are provided with what the percentage hike is given. Using this you need to calculate a new salary.

This is a slightly different scenario from what we have seen in the above example. Here we need to increase the number by a certain percentage as given.

Below is the formula to increase the value by a certain percentage.

New Salary = Current Salary * (1 + Percentage Increase)

Apply the same logic for the below data as well.

We get the following result.

Apply the above same formula to all the cells to get new salary value.

Let me explain to you how this formula works.

The first formula reads like this B2*(1+C2)

= 27323*(1+4.5%)

= 27323*(1.045)

= 28553

Things to Remember About Percent Change in Excel

Percentage change requires at least two numbers.
Percentage change could be positive as well as negative.
Always apply red color format for negative percentage change.