Abrar-ur-Rahman Niloy
The percentage is a very important part of our everyday life. Not to mention its usage in various types of spreadsheet calculations. In a lot of those scenarios, we need to divide a number by a percentage. Such as, we may need to find out the car price from a down payment. Or find the price of an item from the discount it was given. The scenarios are endless. This tutorial describes how to divide a number by a percentage in Excel.
Download Practice Workbook
You can download the workbook with all the examples used for demonstrations below. The examples are separated by different spreadsheets with different procedures to divide a number by a percentage in Excel.
How to Divide a Number by a Percentage in Excel
To divide in any form in Excel you need to write a formula in a cell. Formulas start with an equal sign (=) followed by functions or other operators you may need. For division, you need to input the division sign (/) in between dividend and divisor. As a result of this, Excel will automatically divide the two and replace the result with dividend, divisor, and the division sign.
To divide a number by a percentage in Excel you follow a similar procedure. Only this time, the divisor is a percentage. You can put down the percentage sign after you write the divisor value. Or you can take the whole percentage value from a reference cell and divide a number by it. Either way, you will have the number divided by a percentage and get the same result.
For more detailed explanations, see the examples used below. I have used different approaches for different examples for a better understanding of all the division procedures.
3 Suitable Examples to Divide a Number by a Percentage in Excel
For a better understanding, I am using 3 distinct examples of the division of numbers by percentages. I have used three different division procedures for these three examples. All in all, these are the three different procedures for dividing numbers used here for percentages. You can use any one of these and get the same result.
1. Divide a Value with Percentage in Excel
For the first example, I have used the following dataset.
This is a very common example containing the total discount of different products and the total discount applied on the product in percentage. To find the actual price of the product from this information we need to divide the total discount column by the amount of discount in percentage. In doing so, we will see how we can divide a number by a percentage in Excel.
Follow these steps to see how you can divide from cell references.
The Generic Formula:
Actual Price = Total Discount / Discount
Steps:
- First, select the cell you want to store the value in.
- Then, write down the following formula in the cell.
=C5/D5
Here values from cell C5 are dividends and the percentage number from cell D5 is the divisor.
- After that, press Enter on your keyboard. You will have the division result.
- Now select the cell again. Then click and drag the Fill Handle Icon to the end of the column to get the values for the rest of the column.
Thus you can divide a number by a percentage in Excel.
Read More: How to Divide with Decimals in Excel (5 Suitable Examples)
2. Divide a Number with a Specific Percentage in Excel
For the next example, I am going to demonstrate how to divide a number by percentage in Excel directly from a number.
I am using the following dataset for demonstration.
This dataset consists of a seller’s day-to-day extra profits earned from his sales. Assuming he gets an extra 4% profit on the sale he is making each day, we are going to find out the sales he is making each day. In order to do so, we need to divide the profit earned by 4% and the result will give us the sale he made that day.
For a detailed guide to this procedure, follow these steps.
Steps:
- First, select the cell you want to store the division result in.
- Then write down the following formula in the cell.
=C5/4%
- After that, press Enter on your keyboard. Consequently, you will have the division result.
- To get the rest of the numbers, select the cell again. Then click and drag the Fill handle Icon to the end of the column. This will apply the same formula to the rest of the cells.
And thus you can manually divide a number by a percentage in Excel.
Read More: How to Divide for Entire Row in Excel (6 Simple Methods)
3. Divide a Number by a Percentage Using Cell Reference in Excel
In this example, I will show you how you can divide a number by a percentage in Excel by taking the percentage from a cell reference.
For demonstration, I am using the following dataset.
This dataset consists of several apartments with the number of advanced payments for the rent of each one. Let’s assume you have to pay 40% of the rent in advance. With this information, we can find out the rent of each apartment. To do that, we need to divide the advanced payment by the rent paid in advance. Thus the result will show the value of rent of each apartment.
To divide a number by a percentage from a cell reference in Excel use these steps below.
The Generic Formula:
Rent = Advance Payment/ Rent Paid in Advance
Steps:
- First, select the cell you want to store the value in.
- Now, write down the following formula in the cell.
=C5/$D$11
As can be seen from the figure, cell D11 is the reference cell here. Use absolute reference here so that the value doesn’t change for other cells.
- After that, press Enter on your keyboard. Consequently, you will have the number divided by the percentage.
- Now, we need to find out the rest of the value. For that, select the cell again. Then click and drag the Fill Handle Icon to the end of the column to replicate the formula for the rest of the cells.
And this is another way you can divide a number by a percentage in Excel.
Read More: How to Add and Then Divide in Excel (5 Suitable Examples)
Conclusion
These were different scenarios you can divide a number by a percentage in Excel. Hope you have found this guide informative and helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions, let us know below. For more guides like this, visit Exceldemy.com.
