This Excel Tutorial covers how to calculate the percentage change between two numbers in Excel.

To calculate the percentage change between two numbers in Excel simply take the difference between the new and the old numbers (new-old) and divide it by the old number (new-old)/old:
=(new - old)/old
This will give you a decimal value. Example:
=(62-50)/50 = .24

The result of the percentage change formula may appear as a decimal. Change the cell Number Formatting to Percentage to display the result as a percentage (CTRL + SHIFT + %):

The Text Function

What if you want to add the percentage change into a string of text using a formula? Example: “The price increased 5% from last year”. You need to use the TEXT Function to display as a percentage. Why do we need to do this? Without the TEXT Function, numbers appear unformatted when added to text.


Notice that in the first image, the percentage change is not displayed as a percentage. In the second image, the percentage change appears as a percent.
="The price increased " & TEXT(F4,"0%") &" from last year."

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