Question

Over the past 10 years, the population of an island has decreased by 2% The population of an island 10 years ago was 24000. What is the population of the island now?

Answer 1

23,520

Explanation:

The population of an island has decreased by 2% when the population was 24000. What we want to do is find out how much of a population is each percentage. We want to divide 24,000 with 100 because 24,000 is 100% of the population 10 years ago.

24,000 ÷ 100 = 240

Now we know 1% of the population is 240, but we want to find out 2% of the population. Now we want to multiply by 2.

240 × 2 = 480

Now we know the population has decreased by 480 over the last 10 years, but we want to know the population of the island now. This is easy, all we got to do is take the original population and subtract how much the population it has decreased over 10 years.

24,000 - 480 = 23,520

The population of the island now is 23,520

Hope this helps : )

Answer 2

23,520

Explanation:

What is a percentage?

A percentage is a ratio or a number expressed in the form of a fraction of 100. Percentages are often used to express a part of a total.

If the island had a population of 24,000 10 years ago, we could solve for the population decrease by using this expression:

• 24,000 × 0.02 = 480

Why do we multiply by 0.02?

Well, if percentages are fractions of 100, this means that 2% is equivalent to
`(2)/(100)`, which is also equivalent to 0.02.

This means over the past 10 years the population decreased by 480.

Now that we know this, we can subtract that from the total amount to get the population now.

• 24,000 - 480 = 23,520

This means that the population of the island now is 23,520.

Therefore, the population of the island now with a 2% decrease is 23,520.