Question

The mayor of Hopkins noticed that there is a higher percentage of smokers in his city and in the surrounding cities. He makes A goal to reduce the percentage of smokers in Hawkins by 25%. If 49.6% of Hopkins residents currently smoke what percentage does the mayor hope to achieve?

Answer 1

The percentage the mayor hopes to achieve is 37.2%

Solution:

Mayor makes a goal to reduce the percentage of smokers in Hawkins by 25%.

It is given that 49.6% of Hopkins residents currently smoke.

We have to find out what percentage the mayor hopes to achieve.

Let us assume the population of Hopkins to be ‘x’.

Then the percentage of smoker is:

$\begin{array}{l}{49.6 \% \text { of } \mathrm{x}} \\\\ {=\frac{49.6}{100} \times \mathrm{x}} \\\\ {=0.496 \mathrm{x}}\end{array}$

The mayor wants to reduce the population of smokers by 25%. So we get:

$\begin{array}{l}{=25 \% \text { of } 0.496 \mathrm{x}} \\\\ {=\frac{25}{100} \times 0.496 \mathrm{x}} \\\\ {=0.124 \mathrm{x}}\end{array}$

So the percentage of reduced smokers will be

=0.496 − 0.124

=0.372

Converting to percentage we get:

= 0.372 $\times$ 100

= 37.2%

Therefore, the percentage the mayor hopes to achieve is 37.2%.