Percent means "out of 100." We can use the percent symbol (%) as a handy way to write a fraction with a common denominator of 100. For example, instead of saying "8 out of every 100 professional basketball players are female," we can say "8% of professional basketball players are female."

A percent can always be written as a decimal, and a decimal can be written as a percent, by moving the decimal point two places to the right like this:

The grid below has 100 squares. Use the buttons to see different percents of the grid.