Let's first find the equation to find what the population went up to. X, will be the population of last year. 1.15x=76,894 Now, we need x by itself, so we need to divide both sides by 1.15. 76,894÷1.15≈66,864 There are decimals, but for this problem, hae .3478 of a person would not fit. We can check our answer. 66,864×.15=10,029.6 10,029.6+66,864=76,893.6 (rounds up to 76,864) So the population of the town last year was about 66,864 (66,864.3478) people.
