Numeracy Intermediate 2

Part 2:

Basic Arithmetic Skills

Basic Percentages

The term 'per cent' means out of one hundred.

Percentages allow us to compare fractions which are otherwise difficult to compare.

For instance, one company has 123 men and 89 women employed in it, but another has 947 women out of a total workforce of 2,114. Which company employs a greater proportion of women?

It is very difficult to say just by looking at the numbers, but if we convert the figures to percentages we see that the first company has about 42% of its workforce as women and the second has close to 45%. (We'll worry later about how to calculate these figures.)

In other words, if we scale down both companies so that each has a workforce of 100, the first has 42 women (out of the hundred) and the second slightly more at 45.

Some percentages convert to very easy fractions. We do this by 'cancelling down' the fraction.To do this we divide the numerator and the denominator of the fraction both by the same number. This gives us an equivalent fraction which is worth the same but looks different.