Percentage point

A percentage point is the unit used to express the arithmetic difference between two percentages. It compares rates by subtraction, while "percent" compares them by division: the two measures answer different questions and can differ wildly for the same change.

Example: an interest rate that moves from 5% to 7% rises by 2 percentage points (7 - 5 = 2), but by 40 percent in relative terms (2 ÷ 5 × 100 = 40). Saying "the rate went up 2%" would be wrong on both counts: the correct phrasings are "up 2 points" or "up 40%".

The standard abbreviation is pp, sometimes just "points", as in "unemployment fell by 0.5 pp". Confusing percent with percentage points remains the classic trap: a party moving from 20% to 30% in the polls gains 10 percentage points, yet grows by 50 percent, and headlines regularly pick the wrong figure.