How to Convert Percent to Decimal in 2 Easy Steps
Math Skills: How Do You Convert a Percent to Decimal?
Free Step-by-Step Guide: How to Convert Percent to Decimal
Every math student must learn and understand how to convert percent to decimal. This simple math skill has tons of practical applications both inside the classroom and in real life as well.
In this free guide to How to Convert Percent to Decimal, you will learn an easy two-step method for converting any percent into a decimal. Once you learn how to apply the two-steps, you will be able to quickly and accurately turn percents to decimals. The guide covers the following subtopics, and you can use the quick-links below to jump to a section of interest if you wish:
Once you work through the examples in this guide, you will have a strong understanding of how to turn percent to decimal in a variety of cases.
Are you ready to get started?
Lesson Preview: How to Convert Percent to Decimal Explained
How to Convert Percent to Decimal
We will begin this guide to converting percents into decimals by reviewing a few important vocabulary terms in reference to percentages and decimals.
Definition: In math, a percentage (or a percent) is a value or number that can be expressed as a fraction with where the denominator is 100. For example, 25% is equivalent to the fraction 25/100.
Definition: In math, a decimal is a value that represents a whole number with a fractional part. The fractional part will always have a denominator that is equal to 10 or a multiple of 10. For example, the decimal 0.8 is equal to the fraction 8/10.
Percents and decimals have a proportional relationship and they both can be used to represent a value. Whether you choose to express values as percents or as decimals often depends on the situation. Sometimes, it makes more sense to represent values as percents, and other times it is more useful to express values in decimal form. Given this relationship between percents and decimals, it is incredibly useful for you to be able to quickly and accurately convert between the two, especially converting a percent to decimal.
Figure 01: How to Convert Percent to Decimal: 85% converted to a decimal is 0.85
How to Convert Percent to Decimal in 2 Steps
Now that we have reviewed the key vocabulary terms and relationships related to percents and decimals, we are ready to learn how to turn percent to decimal by following two simple steps:
Step One: Rewrite the percent without the % symbol
Step Two: Add a decimal point (if there isn’t one already) and shift it two places to the left
If you can learn how to apply these two simple step s, you will be able to successfully convert any percent into a decimal number.
For example, let’s apply these two steps to converting 85% into a decimal number.
Step One: Rewrite the percent without the % symbol
For the first step, we simply have to take the percentage value and rewrite it without the % symbol as follows:
85% → 85
Now we can move onto Step Two.
Step Two: Add a decimal point (if there isn’t one already) and shift it two places to the left
For the second step, we have to see if the result from Step One has a decimal point. If it doesn’t already have one, we have to add one. Then, we just have to take that decimal point and shift it two units to the left as follows:
85 → 85.0
85.0 → .85 → 0.85
Final Answer: 85% = 0.85
That’s all that there is to it!
Figure 02: You can convert a percent to decimal by shifting the decimal place two places to the left.
Ready to gain some more experience with using our two-step method for how to turn percent to decimal? Let’s move onto the next section where we will work through five different examples.
How Do You Convert a Percent to Decimal?
Convert Percent to Decimal Example #1
Example: Convert 40% to a decimal.
For Example #1, we have to convert 40% to a decimal number. We can solve this problem by following our two-step method as follows:
Step One: Rewrite the percent without the % symbol
We can complete Step One by rewriting 40% without a percentage symbol as follows:
40% → 40
Step Two: Add a decimal point (if there isn’t one already) and shift it two places to the left
Since our result from Step One, 40, doesn’t have a decimal point, we have to add one and then move it two places to the left as follows:
40 → 40.0
40.0 → .4 → 0.4
Final Answer: 40% = 0.4
We have now solved the first example and we can say that 40% is equal to 0.4.
Figure 03 below illustrates how we used our two-step method to solve this first problem.
Figure 03: How to Convert Percent to Decimal: 40% = 0.4
Are you ready to try another example?
Convert Percent to Decimal Example #2
Example: Convert 79% to a decimal.
For this next example, we can again use our two-step method for converting percents to decimals as follows:
Step One: Rewrite the percent without the % symbol
Just like the last example, we start off by rewriting the percent value without the % symbol as follows:
79% → 79
Step Two: Add a decimal point (if there isn’t one already) and shift it two places to the left
Since 79 does not have a decimal point, we have to add one and then shift it to the left two places.
79 → 79.0
79.0 → .79 → 0.79
Final Answer: 79% = 0.79
So, we can conclude that 79% is equal to 0.79.
Figure 04 displays how we solved Example #2.
Figure 04: How do you convert a percent to decimal?
Convert Percent to Decimal Example #3
Example: Convert 3% to a decimal.
Are you starting to get the hang of it? Let’s move onto to this third example, where we have to convert 3% into a decimal value.
Step One: Rewrite the percent without the % symbol
Start off by rewriting 3% without the percentage symbol:
3% → 3
Step Two: Add a decimal point (if there isn’t one already) and shift it two places to the left
3%=0.03
Next, we have to add a decimal point and then shift it two places to the left as follows:
3 → 3.0
3.0 → .03 → 0.03
Final Answer: 3% = 0.03
Finally, we can conclude that 3% is equal to 0.03.
The entire step-by-step process for converting this percent to decimal is shown in Figure 05 below.
Figure 05: How to Turn Percent to Decimal: 3% = 0.03
Convert Percent to Decimal Example #4
Example: Convert 6.2% to a decimal.
For this fourth example, we are dealing with a percentage that includes a decimal. Luckily, we can still use our two-step method to convert to percent to a decimal.
Step One: Rewrite the percent without the % symbol
Just like the previous examples, our first step is to rewrite the percent without the % sign.
6.2% → 6.2
Step Two: Add a decimal point (if there isn’t one already) and shift it two places to the left
6% = 0.062
In this case, we don’t have to add a decimal because there already is one (between 6 and 2 in 6.2). So, we just have to take that decimal point and shift it two places to the left as follows:
6.2 → .062 → 0.062
Final Answer: 6.2% = 0.062
The entire step-by-step process for converting this percent to decimal is shown in Figure 06 below.
Figure 06: How to Convert Percent to Decimal Example #4
Convert Percent to Decimal Example #5
Example: Convert 115% to a decimal.
For our fifth and final example, we have to convert a percent that is great than 100% into a decimal. Even in situations like, we can still use our two-step method to accurately convert the percent to decimal.
Step One: Rewrite the percent without the % symbol
Just like all of the previous examples, we start out by rewriting 115% without the percent symbol as follows:
115% → 115
Step Two: Add a decimal point (if there isn’t one already) and shift it two places to the left
115% = 1.15
To complete Step Two, we just have to add a decimal point at the end 115 and then shift it two places to the left as follows:
115 → 115.0
115.0 → 1.150 → 1.15
Note that we don’t have to include the zero at the end of 1.150 and we can conclude that:
Final Answer: 115% = 1.15
All of the steps that were followed to complete this last example are shown in Figure 07 below.
Figure 07: How to convert percent to decimal when the percent is greater than 100.
Conclusion: How to Convert Percent to Decimal
Being able to quickly and accurately convert a percent to a decimal is an important and useful math skill that every student must master.
You can successfully convert any percent into a decimal by following two simple steps:
Step One: Rewrite the percent without the % symbol
Step Two: Add a decimal point (if there isn’t one already) and shift it two places to the left
In this guide on how to turn percent to decimal, we worked through five step-by-step examples where we made the following conversions:
40% = 0.4
79% = 0.79
3% = 0.03
6.2% = 0.062
115% = 1.15
