Summary

To calculate the percentage sold any given item you can use a simple formula that divides sold amount by the total amount. In the example shown, the formula in E6 is

=D6/C6

The results in column E are decimal values with the percentage number format applied.

Generic formula

=sold/total

Explanation 

In this example, the goal is to calculate the percentage sold for each item listed in the table, where original number (Total) is in column C and the Sold number is in column D. In other words, if we know we started with 144 apples, and sold 108 apples, we want to calculate that 75% of the apples were sold. The general formula for this calculation, where "x" is the percentage sold, is:

x=total/sold
x=144/108
x=0.75

Converting this to an Excel formula with cell references, the formula in E5 becomes:

=C5/D5
=144/108
=0.75

When the result the Percentage number format is applied, 0.75 is displayed as 75%. As the formula is copied down, the formula returns percentage sold for item in the table.

Formatting percentages in Excel

In mathematics, a percentage is a number expressed as a fraction of 100. For example, 45% is read as "Forty-five percent" and is equivalent to 45/100 or 0.45. Accordingly, the results in column E are decimal values, with the Percentage number format applied.

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Dave Bruns

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.

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