SEARCH HOME
 Math Central Quandaries & Queries
 Question from Joe, a parent: Hello I have a question for my daughters algebra assignment. If Wall-Mart had sales of $58,200,000,000 in the year 2002 and$90,800,000,000 in the year 2006. 1. Find what percent that increase is of the 2002 sales? I came up with (9.08*10^10 - 5.82*10^10) / 5.82*10^10 * 100 = 56.01% increase. Is this correct? 2. What was the percent GROWTH in Wal-Mart's sales from 2002-2006? I am having trouble figuring out how to do the Growth problem. I would appreciate any help.

Joe,

I agree with your solution to question 1.

I was not familiar with the term "percent growth" so I did some searching on the web. I found a number of sites that use percent increase and percent growth as the same concept. I did find a page on the Free by 50 blogspot that that has a definition of percentage growth that I like. Your daughter needs to check with her teacher or textbook to ensure that this is the correct concept.

In this blogspot's page titled How to calculate annual percentage growth they define Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) by

CAGR = ( Ending value / Starting value )1/# of years - 1

For your example this would be

CAGR = ($90,800,000,000/$58,200,000,000)1/4 - 1 = 0.1176 or 11.76%

Again I need to emphasize that this might be the correct definition. Your daughter needs to check with her teacher or the textbook.

Harley

Math Central is supported by the University of Regina and The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.