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"Figures from the English Housing Survey found that just 45 percent of under-45s own their own home - a fall of almost 20 percentage points since 2003-4."

From this can one reason that the percentage of people with a house in 2003-4 was greater than 65% or less than 65%?

Basically what I am asking. is does 'almost' imply the value was less than the stated value or is it a synonym of approximately in that one can't tell if the actual value was above or greater than that stated?

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    Almost means close but not quite. So 45% + "almost" 20 percentage points = "almost" 65% (so strictly less than 65%).
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 12:59
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    I'm still not convinced, because 'close but not quite' does not necessarily mean less than.
    – J.simpson
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 13:03
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    It does when paired with the directionality embedded in the word "fall".
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 13:04
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    Sure, just as a loss of $21 could be regarded as "a loss of almost $20" -- but no one would phrase it that way. You'd say "more than $20" to emphasize it, when making a point about the loss. You would say "almost" when the value was less than $20 (in the case of a loss), like $19 or $18.75 or whatever.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 13:21
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    I agree with Dan Bron's initial position on this - for example, if you say that your age is "almost 20", it means that you haven't reached your 20th birthday. So a fall of "almost 20 percentage points" is a fall of less than (but close to) 20 percentage points.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 13:31

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Almost here is synonymous with less than.

If it had fallen by 10 points, then in 2003-2004 it would have been 55% (45+10).

If it had fallen by 20 points, then in 2003-2004 it would have been 65% (45+20).

But it has fallen by less than 20 points so it must have been less than 65% in 2003-2004.

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