I'm dealing with some math problems here. We have the average sale and loss number in 3 stores.
Site SALE LOSS % LOSS ------------------------------------------- Store 1 474750 336740 70,92996314 (LOSS*100)/SALE Store 2 321920 247810 76,97875249 Store 3 149240 118440 79,36210131 ------------------------------------------- Total 945910 702990 74,31890983
If i sum the loss percentages of store 1,2 and 3 i get an average of 75.75. But when i calculate the total SALE and LOSS and calculate the percentage LOSS i get 74.31?
Shouldent the numbers match? Or is this the wrong way?
Thank you for all answers!
You can't average percentages when they're taken from different totals. Calculating the total sale and loss is the correct way to do the calculation.
See Averaging Percentages on the Ask Dr. Math forum.