Final answer:
The previous population of the city can be found by setting up an equation to solve for the previous population before the 26% decrease.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the previous population, we need to find the population before the 26% decrease.
We can set up an equation to solve for the previous population:
Let x be the previous population.
x - 0.26x = 33,300
0.74x = 33,300
x = 33,300 ÷ 0.74
x ≈ 45,000
Therefore, the previous population was approximately 45,000.