Question

Suppose that the populations of the United States and China both increase by 12 million people in one year. What would be the relative change for each country? Answer to the nearest tenth of a percent (1 decimal place). Make sure that you fill in each answer area before checking "How Did I Do?". If you assume that the U.S. population is about 300 million, an increase of 12 million would result in a relative change of Number %. If you assume that China has about 1 billion people, an increase of 12 million would result in a relative change of Number %.

Answer 1

Answer:

In the given year, American population grew by 4% while China's population grew by 1.2%.

Explanation:

The present problem establishes that in one year the populations of China and the United States both increased by 12 million people. But both countries have different populations: China has a population of 1 billion inhabitants, while the United States has 300 million.

To determine the percentage of population increase in each country, we must perform cross multiplications:

-U.S:

300 = 100

12 = X

(12 x 100) / 300 = X

1,200 / 300 = X

4 = X

The United States grew by population 4% in the year.

-China:

1,000 = 100

12 = X

(12 x 100) / 1,000 = X

1,200 / 1,000 = X

1.2 = X

China grew by population 1.2% in the same period of time.

Answer 2

Answer:

US relative population change = 4.0%

China relative population change = 1.2%

Explanation:

A relative change can be described as a change that reveals the change of a variable in the first period which is expressed in percentage terms. A relative change can therefore be estimated by deducting the value of the variable in the first period from its value in the second period and dividing this difference by its value in the first period. That is;

Relative change = (Change/First period value) * 100 …. (1)

Notes that Change = Second period value – First period value.

Since we are already given the change and first period population in the question, we can now calculate relative change in US and China population using equation (1) as follows:

US relative population change = (12,000,000/300,000,000) * 100 = 4.0%

China relative population change = (12,000,000/1,000,000,000) * 100 = 1.2%

Therefore, the US relative change in population is 4.0% while China relative change in population is 1.2%. This implies that relative population change in the US is greater relative population change in China.