A woman earns ​$2200 per month and budgets ​$418 per month for food. What percent of her monthly income is spent on​ food?

Answer 1

To get the percent that one number is of another, you divide the first number by the second and multiply by 100. For example, if you want the percent that x is of y, you divide x by y and then multiply that by 100.

In the example above you want to know the percent of monthly income that is spent on food, so we can say money spent on food is x and monthly income is y, so you want percent x of y. You are given that x = 418 and y = 2200, so you divide 418 by 2200, which equals 0.19. To turn that decimal into a percent, you multiply by 100, so 0.19*100 = 19%, so the woman spends 19% of her monthly income on food.

A helpful hint to know which number to divide by which, the amount after the "of" is the denominator.