Glossary entry

Danish term or phrase:

% point (procentpoint)

English translation:

percentage point

Added to glossary by Christian Schoenberg
Aug 8, 2005 09:47
18 yrs ago
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Danish term

2-3% point

Danish to English Bus/Financial Business/Commerce (general)
I den samme periode har bruttoavancen været 2-3% point lavere end sidste år, fordi priserne fortsat bruges til at trække kunder til butikkerne af os selv og vores konkurrenter.

Not 100% sure if I have understood this correct. A quick answer is appreciated.

Proposed translations

47 mins
Selected

2-3 percentage points

Same thing in English.

"Percentage points are the proper unit for the difference of two percentages.

Consider the following hypothetical example: in 1980, 40 percent of the population smoked, and in 1990 only 30 percent smoked. We can thus say that from 1980 to 1990, the incidence of smoking decreased by 10 percentage points. It would be misleading (and wrong) to say that smoking had decreased by 10 percent, since a percentage always indicates a ratio, not a difference. Indeed, given the above numbers, smoking decreased by 25 percent between 1980 and 1990.

Statements such as "between 1980 and 1990, the smoking rate decreased twice as much as the lung cancer rate" are ambiguous and should be avoided: it is not clear whether we are comparing percentages or percentage points here, and this makes a big difference.

Percentage points are often used to describe the change in interest rates or inflation rates. If an interest rate increases from 8 percent to 10 percent, then it increases by 2 percentage points. (One might also say that the interest rate has increased by 25 percent, but statement like this are fairly uncommon.) In this context, the simple "points" is often used instead of "percentage points". One hundredth of a percentage point is also known as a basis point.

Percentage points are also used to express the difference of risks or probabilities. Consider for instance a certain drug, which cures a given disease in 60 percent of all cases; without the drug, the disease heals spontaneously in only 40 percent of cases. The drug thus causes an absolute risk reduction of 20 percentage points. Here the reciprocal is especially meaningful and is known as the number needed to treat (NNT): 1/.20 = 5; if you treat 5 patients with the drug, you can expect to heal one more case of the disease than you would have without using the drug." (Source: See below)
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
39 mins

2-3%

Danglish.
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