This has a simple explanation:

One percent = 0.01 so 5 equals 500%.

5 + 5% = 5 + 0.05 = 5.05

Shown in an Excel cell formatted as a “percentage” this gets displayed as 505%.

This has a simple explanation:

One percent = 0.01 so 5 equals 500%.

5 + 5% = 5 + 0.05 = 5.05

Shown in an Excel cell formatted as a “percentage” this gets displayed as 505%.

Maybe an even simpler way to think about it is this:

• Whenever you place a “%” sign after a number, Excel will treat it like it’s divided by 100.
• When a cell is formatted to display a percentage, Excel will will display the value in the cell multiplied by 100 (and followed by a “%” sign).