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# Rounding to 1 decimal place
- URL: https://www.esheets.io/rounding-to-1-decimal-place/
- Published: 2024-08-30T15:45:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-21T18:19:42.000Z
- Author: Richard Linnington
- Tags: Maths, Number

Rounding to one decimal place is useful in situations where you need a bit more precision, such as calculating money, measuring distances, or working with scientific data. It allows you to simplify numbers while still keeping important detail for accuracy. [Jump to the questions](#practise-now)

## Practise now

Worksheet preview and key skills 

### Worksheet preview

Practise rounding to 1 decimal place 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

- Identifying the tenths place.
- Looking at the hundredths digit.
- Deciding whether to round up or keep the tenths digit the same.
- Writing the answer to 1 decimal place.

Use the interactive worksheet below, or read the [Topic guide](#topic-guide) for the method and worked example.

Round each of the following decimal numbers to one decimal place.

## Topic guide

### What this worksheet practises

This worksheet focuses on rounding numbers to 1 decimal place. This is the most common form of rounding in everyday life, often used for measurements like weight (e.g., 74.3 kg) or distance (e.g., 5.2 km).

### Key method

When rounding to decimal places, you start counting immediately after the decimal point, ignoring everything in front of it.

- Locate the decimal point.
- Look at the very first digit immediately after the point. This is the 1st decimal place.
- Look at the single digit immediately to its right (the 2nd decimal place). This is your "decider".
- If the decider is **5 or more**, round your 1st decimal place **up** by one.
- If the decider is **4 or less**, keep your 1st decimal place the **same**.
- Write out the full number, stopping exactly after your 1st decimal place digit. Drop all the numbers that come after it.

### Worked example

**Round 14.839 to 1 decimal place.**

Step 1: Find the 1st decimal place. It is the 8.

Step 2: Look at the decider to its right. It is a 3.

Step 3: Because 3 is less than 5, the 8 stays exactly as it is.

Step 4: Write the number, stopping after the 8\. Drop the 3 and the 9.

The final answer is 14.8.

### Common mistakes to avoid

A common error is looking at the very end of the number to decide how to round. In the example 14.839, a student might see the 9 at the end, use it to round the 3 up to a 4, and then use that 4 to decide the fate of the 8\. This "chain rounding" is completely wrong. You only ever look at the **single** digit immediately next to your target. The 9 is entirely irrelevant.

### Things to remember

If you are asked to round 14.96 to 1 decimal place, the decider is 6, so the 9 must round up to 10\. The 1 carries over the decimal point, making the 14 a 15\. The correct answer is written as 15.0\. You must include the ".0" to prove you have rounded to exactly 1 decimal place.