Dividing Percentages
Just like our other percentage topics, if you can divide a decimal, you can divide a percentage.
As described earlier, the best way to work with percentages are to change them to decimals and dividing is no different.
As a reminder, dividing decimal numbers requires a little more modification.
- Look at the numbers you are multiplying and find the one with the most amount of decimal places.
Example: 100, 10.1, 15.25. In this case, 15.25 has TWO decimal places.
- Once you know the number of decimal places, multiply ALL of the numbers by 1 and the number of zeros there was in the decimal place above
Example: If you have just one decimal place, multiply all numbers by 10. If you have two decimal places, multiply all numbers by 100. If you have three decimal places, multiply all numbers by 1000...and so on.
After this, you can divide the numbers using regular division, remembering to adjust any decimal places you have going forward.
You can also use this method to divide percentages that are less than 100%. For example, 17% / 40 %.
Step 1: There are two decimals here... (.17 and .40)
Step 2: We multiply each by 100 (170 and 400)
Step 3: Divide 170 by 400.
This results in .425, or, as a percentage (remember, move the decimal two spaces to the right....42.5%)