1. Percents

The problem is: About 543 out of every 1,000 people in the United States owned a cell phone in Japan, the rate was 68 for every 100 people. How much greater was the percent of cell phone ownership in Japan than in the U.S?

2. I am assuming the question is meant to be written as

Originally Posted by beesleystudent16
The problem is: About 543 out of every 1,000 people in the United States owned a cell phone. In Japan, the rate was 68 for every 100 people. How much greater was the percent of cell phone ownership in Japan than in the U.S?
The proportion of cell phone ownership in the US was $\frac{543}{1000}=\frac{54.3}{100}=54.3\%$ compared to $\frac{68}{100}=68\%$ in Japan. Now find the difference.

3. Originally Posted by beesleystudent16
The problem is: About 543 out of every 1,000 people in the United States owned a cell phone in Japan, the rate was 68 for every 100 people. How much greater was the percent of cell phone ownership in Japan than in the U.S?
$\frac{68}{100} \cdot \frac{10}{10} = \frac{680}{1000}$

$\frac{680-543}{1000} \cdot 100\% = \frac{680-543}{10}\%$