Working with percentages is a common task in Microsoft Excel, whether you’re calculating taxes, finding profit margins, or analysing growth. Adding a specific percentage to a number is straightforward once you know the right formula.
Add a Percentage to a Number
In Microsoft Excel, you can use a simple formula to add a percentage to a base number. For example, if you want to add 20% to a number located in cell B2, you can use the following formula in cell C2:
=B2+(20%*B2)
In this example, the formula first calculates 20% of the initial number from cell B2 (which is 20%*B2) and then adds it to the original number (B2) to give you the final end value.
Calculate Only the Percentage Value
If you just want to find out what 20% of the number is, without adding it to the initial value, you simply use the multiplication part of the formula:
=20%*B2
Apply the Formula to Multiple Cells
To calculate the same percentage for a whole list of numbers, you don’t need to type the formula manually for each row. Simply click on cell C2, move your mouse cursor over the small green square at the bottom-right corner of the cell (the Fill Handle). Once your cursor turns into a plus sign, click and drag it down the column to copy the formula to the adjacent cells.
Subtract a Percentage from a Number
If you need to decrease the number by 20% instead of increasing it, simply replace the plus (+) sign in the formula with a minus (-) sign:
=B2-(20%*B2)
Once updated, you can click and drag it down the column just like before to apply the updated formula to your dataset.
