# Price Elasticity of Demand Calculator

Use our simple price elasticity of demand calculator to determine the elasticity of demand given the initial and final quantities demanded and price.

Asset Brief is an independent publisher focused on helping you improve your financial decisions. Some of the products featured may be from our partners. This does not influence our reviews, which are based on many hours of research.

Quantity demanded
Price change

Elasticity of demand
-0.733
Demand is inelastic
The percentage change in the quantity demanded is less than the percentage change in price.
Quantity demanded
66.67%
Percentage change
Price
-90.91%
Percentage change
 Initial revenue $400 Final revenue$300 Percentage change in revenue -25%
How to calculate the price elasticity of demand

The formula for the price elasticity of demand is:

Price elasticity of demand
= Percentage change in quantity demanded ÷ Percentage change in price

where:

Percentage change in quantity demanded
= (Final quantity − Initial quantity) ÷ ((Final quantity + Initial quantity) ÷ 2)
= (Final quantity − Initial quantity) ÷ Average quantity

Percentage change in price
= (Final price − Initial price) ÷ ((Final price + Initial price) ÷ 2)
= (Final price − Initial price) ÷ Average price

Using this formula, we can calculate the price elasticity of demand.

Percentage change in quantity demanded
= (Final quantity − Initial quantity) ÷ ((Final quantity + Initial quantity) ÷ 2)
= (10050) ÷ ((100 + 50) ÷ 2)
= 66.67%

Percentage change in price
= (Final price − Initial price) ÷ ((Final price + Initial price) ÷ 2)
= ($3$8) ÷ (($3 +$8) ÷ 2)
= -90.91%

Price elasticity of demand
= Percentage change in quantity demanded ÷ Percentage change in price
= 66.67% ÷ -90.91%
= -0.733

## What is price elasticity of demand?

The price elasticity of demand measures how responsive is the quantity demanded of a good or service to a change in its price.

Definition

Price elasticity of demand: To what extent does the quantity demanded of a good changes in response to a change in its price.

For example, a coffee shop knows that if it raises the price of an ice coffee then the quantity of coffee sold will decrease. How much will it decrease? This depends on how much the quantity demanded responds to a change in price. The price elasticity of ice coffee determines this.

## Price elasticity of demand formula

The price elasticity of demand formula compares the percentage change in quantity demanded to the percentage change in price.

where:

You might notice that the calculation of percentage change does not use the initial price or quantity as the base, but rather the average of the initial and finance price or quantity. This is known as the Midpoint Method and its purpose is to adjust for rises and falls in prices.

## Percentage change in price

Let’s say that a coffee shop raises the price of an ice coffee from $4 to$6. The percentage change is calculated by the following formula.

In this case, the percentage change would be 50%.

Now, imagine that the coffee shop lowers the price of an ice coffee from $6 to$4. The percentage change would be:

The percentage change is −33%.

The price change in both scenarios is the same — $2, but the percentage change is different because the initial price is different in each scenario. We want a percentage change that is not dependent on the direction of the price change, which brings us to the Midpoint Method. ## The Midpoint Method The Midpoint Method divides the change in price by the average price rather than the initial price. The average price is in the middle of the initial and final price, which is why it is called the Midpoint Method. The formula for the percentage change in price based on the Midpoint Method is: Using the Midpoint Method, the percentage change in price for a given dollar change in price will be the same regardless of direction. In the previous examples where the ice coffee price change was$2 and the initial and final prices were $4 and$6, the percentage change using the midpoint method is:

The percentage change when the price of an ice coffee rises from $4 to$6 is:

The percentage change when the price of an ice coffee falls from $6 to$4 is:

The average price is the same whether the price rises or falls and so the magnitude of the percentage change for the same dollar change is the same. Here, it is 40%.

The Midpoint Method is used to calculate both the percentage change in price and the percentage change in quantity demanded.

## Percentage change in quantity demanded

Let’s say that when the price of an ice coffee falls from $6 to$4, the quantity demanded increases from 50 cups a day to 175 cups a day.  The percentage change in quantity demanded using the Midpoint Method is: