Question

The average price of tuition and fees at particular private for your college and universities increase from 8,269 in 1991 to 36,250 in 2020. Calculate the relative change in private college cost over the time period and compare it to overall rate of inflation as measured by the consumer price index. What is the overall rate of inflation percent?

Answer 1

(36,250 - 8,269) / 8,269 = 3.4. 3.4 x 100 = 340%. 340% is the overall rate of inflation.

How you calculate relative change:
New value (in this case, 36,250 as 2020 is newer, in terms of years) minus Old/Initial value (8,269 as 1991 is older than 2020) divided by the Old/Initial value, multiplied by 100 to get a percent.