In 1979, the estimated elephant population was 1.3 million and in 2007 it was 640,000. By approximately what percentage did the elephant population decline over this time period?

Question

In 1979, the estimated elephant population was 1.3 million and in 2007 it was 640,000. By approximately what percentage did the elephant population decline over this time period? (Show your work.) How does this compare to the change in range over this same time period?

Answer 1

In order to find out approximately what percentage the elephant population declined, you need to subtract 640,000 from 1.3 million to get the count of the population decrease. Then, you'll need to divide this count by 1.3 million in order to find the PERCENT decrease.

(1,300,000 - 640,000) / (1,300,000) = 50.77%

This means that the elephant population declined approximately 50.77% percent from 1979 to 2007. Since this is a range of 28 years, the percent of population decline is almost twice as much as the number of years that have elapsed.