Converting percentages to fractions
Percentages pop up everywhere — from calculating discounts in shops to understanding stats in sports. Learning to convert percentages to fractions helps you make sense of these numbers and compare them easily, especially when you want to know how one part relates to the whole! Jump to the questions
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Worksheet preview and key skills
Worksheet preview
Practise converting percentages to fractions with this self-marking maths worksheet.
The interactive worksheet below generates questions, gives instant feedback, and lets students record their score.
What you’ll practise
- Writing the percentage as a fraction over 100.
- Simplifying the fraction where possible.
- Recognising common percentage-fraction equivalents.
- Keeping the answer in fraction form.
Use the interactive worksheet below, or read the Topic guide for the method and worked example.
Convert each percentage to a fraction in its simplest form.
Topic guide
What this worksheet practises
This worksheet provides practice on converting percentages into fractions. Because percent means "out of 100", the initial step is very straightforward, but the true test of this skill is simplifying the resulting fraction down to its lowest terms.
Key method
To convert a percentage to a fraction, you use 100 as your denominator.
- Write the percentage value as the numerator (the top number).
- Write 100 as the denominator (the bottom number).
- Cancel down the fraction by dividing both the top and bottom by their highest common factor.
Worked example
Convert 65% into a fraction in its simplest form.
Step 1: Put the number over 100.
65 / 100
Step 2: Simplify the fraction. Because 65 ends in a 5, and 100 ends in a 0, both numbers are divisible by 5.
65 ÷ 5 = 13
100 ÷ 5 = 20
Step 3: Check if it can be simplified further. 13 is a prime number and doesn't divide into 20.
The simplest form is 13/20.
Common mistakes to avoid
A common error is stopping at the first step and leaving the answer as 65/100. Unless the question specifically allows unsimplified fractions, you will lose marks for not cancelling it down. Another mistake is dealing with decimal percentages (like 12.5%); you cannot leave a decimal inside a fraction. You must multiply top and bottom by 10 to clear the decimal before simplifying (125/1000).
How to check your answer
Look at your final fraction. If the top and bottom numbers are both even, or both end in 5 or 0, you haven't finished simplifying yet. Divide by 2 or 5 and check again.