What is Growth Rate?
The Growth Rate reflects the percentage change in a metric, such as the population or sales, across a specified time frame.
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How to Calculate Growth Rate
The term “growth rate” describes the rate of change in the value of a specific metric across a given time period, expressed as a percentage.
Common examples of scenarios where the growth rate is often used are the following:
- Company Sales (or Revenue)
- Net Operating Income (NOI)
- EBITDA
- Free Cash Flow (FCF)
- Population Figures
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Inflation Rate (CPI)
Under the specific context of financial modeling, the growth rate is most frequently on a quarterly or annual basis, i.e. year-over-year (YoY).
More defensible predictions can be made about the future trajectory of a metric in question by determining its historical growth, which can serve as a practical point of reference for forecasting purposes.
However, the metric’s usefulness is still tied to the extent that the underlying drivers are identified and researched in-depth.
By itself, calculating the historical growth is not enough, because what actually caused the past growth and which qualitative factors are likely to determine a metric’s future growth must also be clearly understood.
Growth Rate Formula
The following formula can be used to calculate the growth rate across two periods.
For example, if a company’s revenue was $100 million in 2020 and grew to $120 million in 2021, its year-over-year (YoY) growth rate is 20%.
- Growth Rate = ($120 million ÷ $100 million) – 1 = 0.20, or 20%