What is a quick way to calculate percentages?

Written by Editorial Team | Last Updated: August 2026

A quick and fast mental math trick to calculate percentages—such as finding 15% of a number—is to break the percentage down into smaller, easily manageable chunks like 10% and 5%. To find 10% of any number, you simply move the decimal point one place to the left. Once you know what 10% is, you can easily find 5% by taking half of that 10% value, and then add the two results together to get your final answer. For example, to calculate 15% of $80, find 10% which is $8, take half of that for 5% which is $4, and add them together to get $12. Reversing the numbers also works wonderfully since 15% of 80 is mathematically identical to 80% of 15.

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