Percent is an important mathematical topic. It is used frequently in real life situations, particularly in business when working with discounts, interest, commission and changes in price. The sales tax that you pay on purchases is given as a percent. We frequently use percents to compare two quantities, e.g. the literacy rates in two countries. Schools often use percent to indicate how well students do on tests.

Percent literally means "per hundred”.

EXAMPLE 1

If you have 100 restaurant coupons and 25 of them are for Pizza Hut, then 25% of the coupons are Pizza Hut coupons.

EXAMPLE 2

If you used 50 out of 200 postcard stamps, then you used 25% of your stamps.

EXAMPLE 3

Your child's school is holding a car wash. If the school's goal was to wash 50 cars in one day, and the students actually washed, then they achieved 200% of their goal!