Changing percentages into decimals | Year 5 Maths Resources

## What you need to know

Things to remember:

• To convert a percentage into a decimal we divide by 100.
• To divide by 100 we move all the digits right 2 places.

First, let’s break up the word “percent” into “per” and “cent”.

per – “for every” or “out of”

cent – 100 (Century = 100 years)

So, if we put these together, then “percent” means “for every 100” or “out of 100”. Writing “percent” takes waaaaaaaay too long, so we use the symbol %.

10% – 10 percent

25% – 25 percent

47% – 47 percent

So, something like 47% just means “47 out of every 100”. We could show this percentage by cutting a block into 100 pieces and taking 47 of them:

So really, a percentage is actually just dividing by 100!

$$47\% =47\div100=0.47$$

Remember: To divide by 100 we move all of the digits right one place.

So, to covert a percentage into a decimal we just divide by 100!

$$5\% =5\div100=0.05$$

$$23\% =23\div100=0.23$$

$$146\% =146\div100=1.46$$

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## Example Questions

$$65%=65\div100=0.65$$

$$250%=250\div100=2.50=2.5$$

## KS2 SATs Flash Cards

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