Final answer:
To calculate per capita real GDP, first ensure that GDP and population are in the same units. Then, divide real GDP by the population, rounding to two decimal places. If inflation adjustments are needed, real GDP must be calculated before this division.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question pertains to the calculation of per capita real GDP for two different years. To find the per capita real GDP, one must divide the real GDP by the population of the country. The process involves first converting the nominal GDP to real terms by adjusting for inflation if necessary, and then performing the division to get GDP on a per-person basis.
In this case, if the nominal GDP is given in billions of dollars and the population is in millions, first, one should convert the GDP to the same unit as the population, which means either multiplying the GDP in billions by 1000 to get millions of dollars, or dividing the population in millions by 1000 to match billions. After adjusting for units, the GDP should be divided by the population to obtain GDP per capita, rounding the answer to two decimal places as requested. Note that the student's question already includes the real GDP, so any adjustments for inflation are unnecessary in this step.
For example, if the real GDP for Year X is $500 billion and the population is 10 million, we multiply GDP by 1000 to convert to millions ($500 billion becomes 500,000 million). Then we divide this number by the population (10 million): 500,000 / 10 = 50,000, which is the per capita real GDP in dollars for Year X.