Year-Over-Year Growth Calculator
Growth rate between any two periods — year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter, month-over-month, or week-over-week — plus a multi-period table with CAGR, a reverse target solver, and honest handling of negative and zero bases. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Growth calculator — old vs new
Multi-period table — growth per period + CAGR
Paste one value per line, oldest first. Optionally prefix a label with a colon, e.g. 2021: 100.
Reverse solver — what must I reach?
Negative growth, honestly
Growth percentages misbehave when the baseline is zero or negative. Enter any tricky pair — this mode shows the standard result, the absolute change, the |base| alternative, and tells you which number is honest to quote.
What this tool is (and isn't)
- General-purpose: any metric — revenue, sales, traffic, users. For earnings per share specifically, the EPS calculator has a dedicated YoY EPS growth section for stock analysis.
- Any period: week, month, quarter, or year. The month-over-month calculator is the Indonesian-language, MoM-only specialist.
- CAGR here is a summary row of your own series table. For investment annualized returns, see the annualized rate of return calculator; for plain directional change, the percent change calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What is the year-over-year growth formula?
Year-over-year growth = (New value − Old value) ÷ Old value × 100%. Example: revenue of $120,000 last year and $150,000 this year gives ($150,000 − $120,000) ÷ $120,000 × 100% = +25.00%, an absolute increase of $30,000. The same formula works for any period — week, month, quarter, or year — just keep the two periods the same length.
How do I calculate week-over-week growth?
Use the same growth formula with weekly periods: (This week − Last week) ÷ Last week × 100%. Example: 2,400 visitors last week and 2,760 this week gives (2,760 − 2,400) ÷ 2,400 × 100% = +15.00%, or 360 extra visitors. Select “Week” in the period selector of Mode 1 and the result is labeled week-over-week automatically.
What if the old value is zero — is growth infinite?
No honest calculator should print “infinite” growth here. Division by zero is undefined: going from 0 to 500 has no meaningful percentage because any percentage of zero is still zero. Report the absolute change (+500) instead, or pick an earlier non-zero baseline. Mode 1 of this calculator refuses the percentage and says so plainly; Mode 4 explains the reasoning.
What does negative year-over-year growth mean?
It means decline: the new value is lower than the old one. Example: revenue of $500,000 last year falling to $400,000 this year gives ($400,000 − $500,000) ÷ $500,000 × 100% = −20.00%, an absolute drop of $100,000. A negative sign is information, not an error — Mode 4 shows how to read declines without mislabeling them.
Why does the calculator show −50% when my losses shrank from −100 to −50?
That is the classic negative-base trap of the standard formula: (−50 − (−100)) ÷ (−100) × 100% = −50.00%, even though the business improved by 50. The standard formula assumes a positive base. With a negative base, either report the absolute improvement (+50), or use the |base| variant: (+50) ÷ |−100| × 100% = +50.00%. Mode 4 computes both side by side and tells you which one to quote.
How do I calculate CAGR from yearly values?
CAGR = (End ÷ Start)^(1 ÷ number of periods) − 1. Example: 100 growing to 150 over 3 years gives (150 ÷ 100)^(1/3) − 1 = 14.47% per year. Note this smooths the path — the actual yearly rates here were +20.00%, +10.00%, and +13.64% (average +14.55%). Mode 2 builds the full per-period table and shows CAGR only as a summary row, so the smoothing never hides the real yearly numbers.
How do I find the target value for a +30% growth goal?
Multiply the baseline by (1 + target): Target = Old × (1 + 30/100). Example: from a baseline of 80,000, a +30% goal needs 80,000 × 1.30 = 104,000. Mode 3 solves this in both directions — target value from a growth goal, or required growth from a target value.
Should I use YoY, MoM, or WoW growth?
Match the period to the decision. Year-over-year removes seasonality (this December vs last December) and suits annual targets; month-over-month reacts faster but is noisy; week-over-week is noisiest and suits operational metrics like traffic or signups. Never compare a MoM number against a YoY target — annualize first or keep the comparison within one period type.
Is a rise from 20% to 25% a 5% increase?
It is a 5 percentage-point increase, but a +25.00% relative increase: (25 − 20) ÷ 20 × 100% = +25.00%. Confusing the two is one of the most common growth-reporting errors. When both inputs are already percentages, say “percentage points”; reserve “percent growth” for the relative change.
How is this different from the YoY growth in the EPS calculator?
The EPS calculator (#652) computes YoY growth on one specific metric — earnings per share — for stock analysis, using (Current EPS − Prior EPS) ÷ |Prior EPS|. This tool is general-purpose: revenue, sales, traffic, users, or any metric, with a week/month/quarter/year period selector, a multi-period table with CAGR, a reverse solver, and honest handling of zero and negative bases. Use #652 for per-share profitability; use this tool for everything else.
Free tool by NRTechStudio