How to convert fractions into percentages
Fractions can be converted into percentages.
In fact, percentages are fractions that are over 100.
When writing percentages the per cent symbol (%) is used.
Things can be described as percentages even if they don’t have 100 parts.
Activity: Converting fractions into percentages
Complete this interactive activity to better understand how to convert fractions into percentages. Then put your knowledge to the test.
Making fractions over 100
Percentages are the same as fractions that are over 100.
Since not all fractions are over 100, you need to convert the fractions into ones that are.
You do this by multiplying the numerator and the denominator by the same number.
You then just take the numerator and add the per cent sign.
Example 1
This fruit bowl has 3 banana, 5 oranges and 2 pears in it. What percentage of the fruit is bananas?
✓30%
There are 10 pieces of fruit in total and you know that percentages must be out of 100 parts.
10 multiplied by 10 makes 100.
Therefore, if you multiply each piece of fruit by 10, that will get the percentage.
3 bananas × 10 = 30%
So 30% of the fruit are bananas.
Example 2
Here is a plan of Rohan’s fruit garden. It has 50 spaces to grow fruit in total. What percentage of the garden is blackberries?
✓30%
To work out the percentages of each fruit, the garden needs to have 100 parts.
As the garden has 50 parts, you can just double the picture.
This then shows that:
40 out of 100 parts are strawberries, which is 40%.
30 out of 100 parts are raspberries, which is 30%.
30 out of 100 parts are blackberries, which is also 30%.
Therefore 30% of the garden is blackberries.
Example 3
A pet shop has 5 rabbits, 4 mice, 3 budgies and 8 hamsters. What are the percentages of each type of animal?
✓ 25% of the animals are rabbits, 20% of the animals are mice, 5% of the animals are budgies and 40% are hamsters.
There are 20 animals altogether, so the numbers of each animal can be shown as a fraction out of 20.
Percentages are fractions over 100, so you can multiply the numerator and denominator by 5.
Play our fun maths game Guardians: Defenders of Mathematica. game
Use your times tables and more maths skills to defeat monsters and reclaim the Kingdom of Mathematica
More on Percentages
Find out more by working through a topic
- count1 of 4
- count2 of 4
- count3 of 4
