Question

In​ 2006, the population of a country was 40.2 million people. From 2006 to 2050 comma the​ country's population is expected to decrease by 5.8 %. Find the expected population of the country in 2050. Round to the nearest tenth of a million.

Answer 1

You can figure the remaining percentage in 2050 and calculate using that, or you can figure the amount of population that will be lost and subtract that from the 2006 value.

First method: The remaining population will be 100% - 5.8% = 94.2% of that in 2006. 0.942×40.2 million ≈ 37.9 million

Second method: 5.8% of 40.2 million is about 2.3 million, so the remaining population will be 40.2 - 2.3 = 37.9 million