What is 42/87 as a percentage? 48.28%. This is the rounded value you get when you change the fraction into a percent.
The fraction 42/87 can be simplified a little, but it already shows the relationship between the two numbers clearly. When you think of it as a part of a whole, about half of the whole is represented by this fraction.
In everyday use, you can say that 42 out of every 87 items is roughly 48.28 percent of the total. This makes it easy to compare with other percentages or to understand the size of the group in a quick, visual way.