Risk Headline Decoder: Relative and Absolute Risk

Home › Calculators › Risk Headline Decoder

Risk before e.g. 1 in 10,000, 2 in 1,000 or 5%

Risk after

Per what? e.g. a year, a trip

Load an example from the book

Enter your numbers, then press Calculate.

From the book, Chapter 15. “Doubles the risk”: 1 in 10,000 to 2 in 10,000 is +100% relative but only 0.01 percentage points: one extra case in 10,000. “Cuts the risk in half”: 2 in 1,000 to 1 in 1,000, so 1,000 people need the change for one of them to benefit.

Exact arithmetic, worked the way the book shows. Everything stays in your browser: no sign-up, nothing stored or sent.