Question

quantitative literacy
demonstrate the use of basic mathematical concepts as applied to political topics.
when encountering data in government and politics, you will often read about something changing by a certain \percentage\ or a certain number of \percentage points.\ it is easy to think these mean the same thing, but they are potentially very different. for example, in 2016 roughly 60 percent of eligible voters in the united states turned out to vote in the presidential election. in 2020, the number was approximately 66 percent of eligible voters. clearly turnout increased, but how do we describe that increase?
here is what we should not say: \voter turnout increased by 6 percent.\ it might look that way from quickly eyeballing it; after all, 66 percent minus 60 percent looks like it should be 6 percent. but if you use your calculator to figure out what 6 percent of the original 2016 turnout number was, youll see that 6 percent of 60 percent is only 3.6 percent. so if turnout in 2020 had been 63.6 percent, then it would have been accurate to say turnout increased by 6 percent. but it wasnt.
one correct way of describing the increase is to say that turnout increased by 6 percentage points. you can figure out the percentage point change by using simple subtraction. the word \points\ is key in that sentence, and it indicates to us that we are talking about change relative to 100 percent.
the other way we could correctly describe the increase is calculate how much the change in value (which, as a reminder, was 6) is of the original 2016 number (60): in this case 6 is 10 percent of 60, so we could accurately say that turnout increased by 10 percent. percent change indicates to us that we are talking about change relative to the starting number.
imagine that you were given the following data: turnout in the 1996 u.s. presidential election was 50 percent of eligible voters (this was near the lowest turnout rate in u.s. history). we know that by 2016, turnout was 60 percent of eligible voters. if someone told you there was \an increase of 20\ from 1996 to 2016, do they mean 20 percent or 20 percentage points?
click or tap a choice to answer the question.
percentage points
percent

Explanation:

Step1: Calculate percentage point change

Percentage point change is calculated by simple subtraction.
$$60 - 50=10$$

Step2: Calculate percentage change

Percentage change is calculated by $\frac{\text{Change in value}}{\text{Original value}}\times100$.
$$\frac{60 - 50}{50}\times100=\frac{10}{50}\times100 = 20$$

Answer:

percent