Fifths converted to percentages

When you want to show a fraction as a percentage the most important thing to remember is that 100% is a whole amount, and in decimal terms it can be shown as the number 1. When you divide one into fifths you split the whole amount (1) into five parts.  So when you show 100% as fifths you split 100 into five equal parts and multiply this number by the number of fifths in your fraction.

  1. The bottom number (the denominator) in all fifths fractions is 5.
  2. Imagine you have a pie and you cut it into five pieces – each piece is one fifth of the pie.
  3. One pie is 100% of the pie – so let’s cut the percentage value for a whole (100) into 5 pieces as well!
  4. 100 ÷ 5 = 20
  5. Every top number in the fraction (the numerator) represents one fifth of 100%.
  6. Multiply the numerator by the percentage value of each piece to show the fraction as a percent.

With the above in mind, here are each of the fifths fractions shown as a percentage and the workings behind the answer.

1/5 as a percent

  1. Divide 100 by the denominator: 100 ÷ 5 = 20
  2. Multiply this number by the nominator: 20 × 1 = 20

So what is 1/5 as a percentage?  The answer is 20%.

2/5 as a percent

  1. Divide 100 by the denominator: 100 ÷ 5 = 20
  2. Multiply this number by the nominator: 20 × 2 = 40

What is 2/5 as a percentage?  The answer is 40%.

3/5 as a percent

  1. Divide 100 by the denominator: 100 ÷ 5 = 20
  2. Multiply this number by the nominator: 20 × 3 = 60

So what is 3/5 when as a percentage?  The answer is 60%.

4/5 as a percent

  1. Divide 100 by the denominator: 100 ÷ 5 = 20
  2. Multiply this number by the nominator: 20 × 4 = 80

So what is 4/5 when as a percentage?  The answer is 80%.

5/5 as a percent

  1. Divide 100 by the denominator: 100 ÷ 5 = 20
  2. Multiply this number by the nominator: 20 × 5 = 100

So what is 5/5 as a percentage?  The answer is 100%.

Remember this point about five fifths (5/5) – if the numerator can be divided by the denominator where the result is a whole number, you can reduce the fraction.

5 ÷ 5 = 1

So the fraction could also be expressed as 1/1 – 1 part of 1 is 1 – it is all of it, the whole amount – it is 100%!