Question

I need to find out what is happening to the population and will the trend continue and if there is any benefits to calculating and plotting the average population for each year?

Answer 1

Let's plot this data

We can see that the population increase from Q1 to Q3, but then from Q3 to Q4 it decreases, this happens almost every year. So we can say that there is a general trend upwards from 2004 to 2009 with small decreases in Q4 every year.

Now, let's find out what happens if we plot the average population each year

if we only plot the average population each year, we can only see that the population is increasing year after year.

Additionally, if we add both graphs together, we'll notice that the average population is always really close to Q2 population.

In conclusion, from the average population plot we can notice that the population is increasing yearly, however if we use the quarters plot, we can see that the population increase from Q1 to Q3, but then from Q3 to Q4 it decreases, and then from Q4 to Q1 next year it increases again.