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Percentage point: what it means

The arithmetic difference between two percentages. A rise from 4% to 5% is one percentage point, but a 25% increase in the rate.

A percentage point is the plain difference between two percentages. It is different from a percentage change, which describes how much one number has grown relative to its starting size.

Worked example

A hypothetical unemployment rate rises from 4% to 5%.

  • The change is 1 percentage point (5 minus 4).
  • The change is also a 25% increase in the rate (1 divided by 4).

Both statements describe the same movement, but they sound very different. If an interest rate falls from 5.25% to 5%, that is a cut of 0.25 percentage points, often written as 25 basis points (one basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point).

How it trips up claims

  • Saying a rate "rose by 1%" when it moved from 4% to 5% is ambiguous: it could mean to 4.04% or to 5%.
  • Small rates make percentage changes look large. A rise from 0.1% to 0.2% is only 0.1 percentage points but a 100% increase.
  • Official bulletins such as the ONS unemployment rate and Bank of England Bank Rate decisions describe changes in percentage points.

See also how to check a percentage claim.

Also searched as: percentage point vs percent, basis point, pp, percent vs percentage point difference

Official definitions: ONS: Labour market overview, latest bulletin · Bank of England: Interest rates and Bank Rate

Official figures that use this term

Bank of England Bank Rate
3.75%
14 Oct 2026 · Bank of England

Read live from the publishers.

Key figures where it matters

Questions that use this term

Related terms

  • Year-on-year change: The change between a figure for one period and the same period twelve months earlier, such as March this year compared with March last year.
  • Odds, risk, relative and absolute risk: Risk is the chance an event happens out of everyone exposed; odds compare those it happens to with those it does not. Relative risk compares two groups' risks.
  • Bank Rate: The interest rate the Bank of England pays on reserves held by commercial banks. Set by the Monetary Policy Committee, it is often called the base rate.

More measuring change over time terms: Real terms · Cash terms · Year-on-year change · Quarter-on-quarter change · Rolling average · Index number · Base year · Seasonally adjusted · Base effect · Compound annual growth rate · Discontinuity (break in series).