That's a roughly 10% increase over last year in the relative rate of participation: (38195-27478)/(103811)*100 = 10.32% Comparing two percentages directly

That's a roughly 10% increase over last year in the relative rate of participation: (38195-27478)/(103811)*100 = 10.32% Comparing two percentages directly like that, while intuitive, misses trends in relatively small subsets of the larger population.