Question

The population of Watesville decreases at a rate of 1.6% per year. If the population was 62,500 in 2014, what will it be in 2020?

Answer 1

56,735 people

Explanation:

We can set up an equation to model this:

The equation for exponential decay is y = C(1 - r)^t, where C is the original amount, r is rate of change, and t is time.

We can plug in the corresponding values and solve:

y = 62500(1 - 0.016)^6

y = 62500(0.984)^6

y = (62500)(0.9077)

y = 56,734.94, which we can round to 56,735 people