How to calculate percentage change between two numbers
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3Work out the percent increase or decrease from an old value to a new value.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =(B2-A2)/A2 | Format the cell as Percent. B2=new, A2=old. |
| Google Sheets | =(B2-A2)/A2 | Identical; format as %. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =(B2-A2)/A2 | Identical. |
How it works
Percentage change is (new - old) / old. Going from 200 to 250 is (250-200)/200 = 0.25 = a 25% increase. A negative result means a decrease. Then format the cell as a percentage.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =(B2-A2)/A2 in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 0.25 — exactly the expected result. Every formula here is confirmed by actually executing it.