Help with excel. I can't figure this formula out?

Question

I have been racking my brain for a while now trying to figure out how to do this. The question asked is compute the % change in each quantity from 1992-2001. Can someone help me out by what formula I need to use in excel. I have attached the figures below. Any help would be greatly appriciated.
19921997 2001
Courts
Actual Costs70,258136,304238,041
#Full-Time Employees71012
Cost per Employee $10,036.86 $13,630.40 $19,836.75
Cost per capita $4.14 $7.29 $12.43

Answer 1

I don't really follow your data.
But, to calculate % change you do this:

There is no funciton for doing, the formula is:

[Value(2001) - Value(1992)] / Value(1992)

Value(2001) is the 2001 value of a figure
Value(1992) is the 1992 value of a figure

Answer 2

Your dilemma is because you haven't been told what is the basis for the percent. You can calculate percent change from period to period or percent change since the base period. You can calculate a percent based on the oldest period or the earliest period. Ask whoever asked you these questions. If it is a textbook question, read the chapter and it will say what assumption you use to make the formula.

Generally, you subtract the smaller number from the larger number then divide by the smaller. If you have a yearly decrease, you will subtract the larger from the smaller and end up with a negative percent, but that is expected because of the decrease. In your example of three periods, you will only have two answers because there isn't anything for the last number to compare to.

If you use 1992 as the base to compare percents, you subtract the 1992 figures from the others and divide by 1992.

Answer 3

to calculate the percent change, you take the end value, subtract the starting value, and divide the difference by the starting value.

for example, take the actual costs:
say that cell A1= $70,258 and cell C1= $238,041

If you want the result in D1, type this into D1: "=(C1-A1)/A1"

You can click on the % button to convert the cell value to percent.
It turns out to be 238.81%

Answer 4

% change = 100*(x2 - x1)/x1

Those aren't cell numbers. X1 is the earlier number and x2 is the later number.