Percentage Increase And Decrease Worksheet

Percentage increase and decrease at a glance

Once students are confident with calculating percentages of amounts, we move to percentage increase and decrease. A simple starting point is a real-life scenario like a wage increase – for example, last year someone earned a wage of £25000, and received a 10% increase. To calculate their new salary in the next year, we find 10% of £25000 and add this on to the original amount. If it was a wage deduction, we use subtraction from the original value. For easier percentages and multiples of 10%, students may prefer this method. 

If a calculator is available, the percentage multiplier method is often quicker – for example, finding the sale price of an item reduced by 35% with an original price of £40. Here, the multiplier is 0.65 (1 – 0.35), so work out 0.65 40 to find the new price of the item.

Extending this topic further, students study the reverse process where they are given the new number and the percentage change and need to  work backwards to find the original number.

Looking forward, students can then progress to additional number worksheets, for example a dividing fractions worksheet or a compound interest worksheet.

For more teaching and learning support on Number our GCSE maths lessons provide step by step support for all GCSE maths concepts.