The Easiest Way to Round to the Nearest Hundred

Listen to the “talking digit” to quickly round numbers

Last Updated: January 9, 2023

Finding the Nearest Hundred

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Practice Problems

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Practice Problem Solutions

Did you ever see numbers like $473$ and $231$ and wish you could instantly know about how much they added up to? Rounding numbers gives you a way to do that. Your number won't be exact, but it'll be close! This skill really comes in handy if you're trying to figure out how far away a place is or how much money you need to buy something you want. Read on to learn how to round to the nearest hundred, then see how you do on some practice problems.

Things You Should Know

Round down if the tens digit is $0,1,2,3,$ or $4$ .
Round up if the tens digit is $5,6,7,8,$ or $9$ .
Add $1$ to the hundreds digit to round up. Leave the hundreds digit the same when rounding down.
Change all the digits to the right of the hundreds place to $0$ after rounding.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Finding the Nearest Hundred

1
Look at the digit in the tens place. As you probably guessed by "nearest" hundred, rounding is all about distance. The tens digit, the one just to the right of the hundreds digit, tells you which hundreds digit your number is closest to—that's why it's sometimes called the "talking digit."^{[1]
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- For example, in $478$ , the "talking digit" in the tens place is a $7$ .
- Using a number line can help you easily visualize which hundred your number is closest to.
2
Round down if the tens digit is $0,1,2,3,$ or $4$ . When the tens digit is $0,1,2,3,$ or $4$ , the number is closer to the lower hundred than it is to the higher hundred. To round these numbers, just drop the extra digits and stay with the original hundreds digit.^{[2]
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For example, in $423$ , the tens digit is the talking digit, and it's a $2$ . So you'd round down to $400$ .
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3
Round up if the tens digit is $5,6,7,$ or $8$ . The $5$ $5$ is a little weird—technically it's equally close to both hundreds! But it's rounded up just to keep the rule simple.^{[3]
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- For example, in $478$ , the tens digit is a $7$ , so you'd round up to $500$ .
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Add $1$ to the hundreds digit if you rounded up. When you round up, you basically give the number credit for another full hundred, even though it's not quite there. It's close enough! So you just add another $1$ $1$ .^{[4]
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- For example, as you saw with $478$ , the $7$ in the tens place means you need to round up, so you'd add $1$ to $400$ to get $500$ .
- If you round down, the hundreds digit stays the same. For example, $423$ gets rounded down to $400$ because the digit in the tens place is $2$ .
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Change all the digits to the right of the hundreds place to $0$ . The rounding takes care of all the numbers to the right—that's what makes it easier to do math with rounded numbers. Any numbers to the left of the hundreds place, on the other hand, are going to stay the same.^{[5]
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For example, if you have $478$ and you're rounding to the nearest hundred, you get $500$ .

But what if you have $2,478$ ? The numbers to the left stay the same, so if you're rounding it to the nearest hundred, you get $2,500$ .

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Practice Problems

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Round $231$ , $147$ , and $981$ to the nearest hundred. Remember to look at the number in the tens place to decide whether to round up or round down. You've got this!^{[6]
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Round $13,167$ and $98,964$ to the nearest hundred. Decide whether to round up or down based on the number in the tens place. Remember to change the numbers to the right of the hundreds digit to $0$ .^{[7]
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3
Car shopping word problem. Your mom is shopping for a new car and has a budget of $20,000. The car she's looking at has a starting retail price of $18,000. By rounding to the nearest hundred, determine if she can afford to add the following options:^{[8]
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- Power sunroof: $725
- Rear spoiler: $250

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Practice Problem Solutions

1
Your rounded numbers are $200$ , $100$ , and $1,000$ . Did the last one throw you? The number in the tens place is $8$ $8$ , which means you need to round up. Just add $1$ $1$ to the digit in the hundreds place, which is $9$ $9$ , and you get $10$ $10$ , so your answer is $1,000$ $1,000$ .^{[9]
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- Remember that you're rounding to the nearest hundred. With $147$ , it would be incorrect to first round the $4$ up to $5$ because of the $7$ in the ones place, and then round up to $200$ .^{[10]
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2
Your rounded numbers are $13,200$ and $99,000$ . There's another one that carries over to the thousands! But here, you already have a number in the thousands place, $8$ . So you'd need to add a $1$ to it to get $99,000$ .^{[11]
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3
Car shopping word problem. Yes, she can afford the power sunroof and the rear spoiler. Your mom's budget of $20,000 gives her an extra $2,000 over the base price of the car, which is $18,000. You'd find this by subtracting the base price from your mom's budget.^{[12]
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- Round the cost of each of the two options. The power sunroof is $725, which rounds to $700. The rear spoiler is $250, which rounds to $300.
- Add your rounded numbers together and you get $1,000. Since you've already established that your mom has an extra $2,000, and $1,000 is less, you can conclude that she can afford the two options she wants.