One percentage / percent point

Question

1) The country would add one percentage point to growth.2) The country would add one percent point to growth.I have learned that percent is used with numbers and percentage is used with adjectives like high, large,etc. But I saw the first sentence and then is there a meaning difference between them? And percentage is also used with numbers? What do you native English speakers think? Thank you so much in advance.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

#1 is correct. Percentage is modifying the noun point.
Percent is not used as a modifier.
2) The country would add one percent ~~point~~ to growth.

Hans51 · Answer

Thank you so much and I feel like there is not meaning difference between 'percentage' and 'percent' although they are used differently. What do you think?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/percent

From the entry above:
Usage note
Percent is from the Latin adverbial phrase per centum meaning “by the hundred.” The Latin phrase entered English in the 16th century. Later, it was abbreviated per cent. with a final period. Eventually, the period was dropped and the two parts merged to produce the modern one-word form percent. The two-word form per cent is still used occasionally, but its use is diminishing. The percent sign ( % ) is used chiefly in scientific, tabular, or statistical material and only with numerals preceding it: 58%; a range of 30% to 40%.
In the senses “rate or proportion per hundred” and “proportion in general” percent and percentage are frequently interchangeable. With a preceding number, only percent occurs ( a 16 percent decline ); with no preceding number, either occurs, but percentage is much more common: a certain percentage (or percent ) of the land.

In the case of "percentage point" you will almost always see "percentage", not "percent".

Hans51 · Answer

Thank you for the great answer and my text book says that percent is used with numbers but percentage is used with adjectives such as large, high, etc. Do you agree with this? And it also says, "But 'one' is used with percentage". I do not know why 'one' is an exception here, so do you agree that it should be one percentage and then one percent is not okay or is there a meaning difference between them? What do you think?

cf. one percentage of participants VS. one percent of participants

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Hans51Thank you for the great answer and my text book says that percent is used with numbers but percentage is used with adjectives such as large, high, etc.

That's right. Here is an example:
A large percentage of the people in India are too poor to buy a car.
Sixty-six percent of the people in India are too poor to buy a car.

Hans51 And it also says, "But 'one' is used with percentage". I do not know why 'one' is an exception here, so do you agree that it should be one percentage and then one percent is not okay or is there a meaning difference between them? What do you think?

"One" is not an exception. eg.
Only one percent of the people who buy lottery tickets will get any money back.
Using "percentage" here sounds very strange and unnatural to me.

Compare these:

The interest rates went up by less than one percentage point. (OK)
The interest rates went up by less than one percent. (OK)
X The interest rates went up by less than one percentage. (Not correct.)

One percentage / percent point

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