Question

A city was founded at the beginning of 1990 with a population of 55,000, and since then, the growth in its population has been exponential, increasing at x percent per year. If the city's population at the beginning of 2000 was 108,193, at what percent per year to the nearest percent is the city's population increasing?

Answer 1

You can solve this analytically to get
.. 55000*(1 +x/100)^10 = 108193
.. (1 +x/100)^10 = 108193/55000
.. 1 +x/100 = (108193/55000)^(1/10)
.. x = 100*((108193/55000)^(1/10) -1) ≈ 7.00

but I find it just as fast to have a graphing calculator do it.

The city's population is increasing 7% per year.