Whole numbers are the numbers you use for simple counting and “how many” questions, including 0 and all positive integers, with no fractions or decimals.

Quick Scoop

Definition (In plain words)

Whole numbers are all numbers starting from 0 and going on as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on, without any decimal or fractional part.

They do not include negative numbers like −3 or −10, and they do not include numbers like 2.5 or 3/4.

Formally, the set of whole numbers is:
{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,...\{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,...{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,....

Simple examples

  • 0 (zero)
  • 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
  • 10, 25, 100, 999, 2026

You can think of them as the numbers you’d use to count objects:

  • Number of students in a class: 30
  • Number of cars in a parking lot: 47
  • Number of books on a shelf: 12

Non-examples (what is NOT a whole number)

These are not whole numbers:

  • Negative numbers: −1, −5, −10
  • Fractions: 1/2, 3/4, 4/5
  • Decimals: 2.5, 7.3, 0.01
  • Special numbers like π≈3.14\pi \approx 3.14π≈3.14

Reason: all of these involve either a “part” of a whole or they are less than 0, so they don’t fit the idea of a whole count.

Quick comparison table

Here’s a compact view in HTML, as requested:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Type</th>
      <th>Includes</th>
      <th>Examples</th>
      <th>Notes</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Whole numbers</td>
      <td>0 and all positive integers</td>
      <td>0, 1, 2, 3, 10, 100</td>
      <td>No decimals, no fractions, no negatives.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Natural (counting) numbers</td>
      <td>Positive integers (often starts from 1)</td>
      <td>1, 2, 3, 4, 10</td>
      <td>Usually same as whole numbers but without 0.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Integers</td>
      <td>Negatives, zero, positives</td>
      <td>..., −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...</td>
      <td>Whole numbers are the non‑negative part of the integers.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Not whole numbers</td>
      <td>Fractions, decimals, negatives</td>
      <td>−5, 1/2, 0.3, 7.3</td>
      <td>Contain parts of a whole or are less than 0.</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Tiny story to remember it

Imagine you’re counting people walking into a room.
You can say there are 0 people, then 1, then 2, then 3, and so on, but you’d never say “there are 2.5 people” or “−4 people” in the room.
The numbers you actually use in that situation—0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …—are exactly the whole numbers.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.