Repeated Percentage Change

Calculators Allowed
Prior Knowledge:
• To know what is meant by a multiplier.
• Be able to increase and decrease an amount by a given percentage.

Key Vocabulary
Interest – money that is paid at a particular percentage, usually when money has been lent or
borrowed. For example, a bank may charge a customer who borrows money a percentage of the
amount as a fee. It can take two forms: simple and compound.

Simple interest – this is interest that is only calculated from the principal (the original amount of
money).

Compound interest – this is interest that is calculated from both the principal (the original
amount of money) and any interest they have already earned.

Depreciation – when a value decreases over time.

It is useful to remember that percent comes from the words per- (meaning out of) and -cent
(meaning 100). A percentage is measured out of 100.

Percentage multipliers can be used to find the percentage of an amount.

Example One To increase or decrease by a percentage,

Find 12% of 50. begin by either adding or subtracting the
relevant percentage from 100%, then find the
To find the percentage multiplier, begin by percentage multiplier.
writing 12% as a decimal.
Example Two
12 ÷ 100 = 0.12 Increase 40 by 25%.

0.12 is the percentage multiplier. Since we are increasing, we want to add 25%
to 100%.
Then, multiply the given amount (50) by the 100 + 25 = 125%
percentage multiplier (0.12):
We need to find 125% of 40.
0.12 × 50 = 6
125 ÷ 100 = 1.25
12% of 50 is 6. 1.25 × 40 = 50

40 increased by 25% is 50.

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 Repeated Percentage Change

Sometimes, you might be asked to calculate a repeated percentage increase or decrease (a

repeated percentage change).

Example Three
A jumper costing £30 increases in price by 35%, and then by a further 5%. How much did it cost
after the increases? You should give your answer correct to the nearest penny.

This time, there are two percentage increases. Begin by finding the percentage multiplier for
each of them.

100 + 35 = 135%
135 ÷ 100 = 1.35

100 + 5 = 105%
105 ÷ 100 = 1.05

So, our percentage multipliers are 1.35 and 1.05.

Now, multiply the given amount (£30) by both percentage multipliers:

30 × 1.35 × 1.05 = 42.525

The jumper cost £42.53 after the price increases.

Example Four
A company bought a van that had a value of £12 000. Each year, the value of the van depreciates
by 20% of its original value.
Work out the value of the van at the end of three years.

Depreciation means that the value will decrease.

Begin by finding the percentage multiplier for the given percentage (20%).
20 ÷ 100 = 0.20 (We can say that the percentage multiplier is 0.2, as it’s not necessary to include
the final 0 here).

Multiply the given amount by the percentage multiplier.

12 000 × 0.2 = £2400.

This means that the van will lose £2400 of its value each year.

We are asked to find the value at the end of three years, so we need to multiply this amount by
3 and then subtract it from the original value.

2400 × 3 = £7200
12 000 – 7200 = £4800

The value of the van at the end of three years is £4800.

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 Repeated Percentage Change

Your Turn
1. Write down the percentage multipliers for:

a. a 35% increase. e. a 2% decrease. i. a 12.8% decrease.

  

  

b. a 72% increase. f. a 1% increase. j. a 1.2% decrease.

  

  

c. a 23% decrease. g. a 99.9% decrease.

 

 

d. a 91% increase. h. a 2.5% increase.

 

 

2.
a. Increase 52 by 16%. c. Increase 546 by 27%. e. Decrease 42 by 92.7%.

  

  

  

b. Decrease 116 by 14%. d. Increase 35 by 1.4%.

 

 

 

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 Repeated Percentage Change

3. Increase 50 by 25% then increase the 6. Decrease 780 by 14% then decrease the
result by 15%. result by 60%.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Increase 115 by 32% then increase the 7. Increase 650 by 45% then decrease the
result by 55.5%. result by 2.5%.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Decrease 550 by 5% then decrease the 8. A jacket costing £30 increases in price
result by 20%. by 25% and then by a further 10%. How
much did it cost after the increases?















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 Repeated Percentage Change

9. A pair of shoes costs £60. In a sale they 11. Merryn invested £3000 in a bank account
decreased in price by 15% and then by that paid simple interest at a rate of 1.5%
a further 10%. How much did the pair of per year.
shoes cost after the decreases?
How much did she have in her account
 three years later? Assume she didn’t invest
or withdraw any money over this period.

Hint – simple interest is only calculated on
 the original amount.

 

 

 

 

 

 


10. Martha bought a car for £7500. Each year, 
the value of the car depreciates by 18% of
its original value. Work out the value of the
car two years after she bought it. 12. In a sale, a shop took 20% off its normal
 prices. A few days later, it took 10% off its
sale prices.

Logan says, ‘That means there was 30% off
 the normal prices.’
Explain why Logan is incorrect.













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 Repeated Percentage Change

Challenge
A shop had a closing down sale. The sale started on Thursday (when the shop opened) and ended
on Sunday (when the shop closed). For each day of the sale, prices were reduced by 10% of the
prices on the day before.

If a dress had a price of £30 on Wednesday, what would be its new price on Saturday?

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