The population of a town increased from 3250 in 2006 to 4950 in 2009. What is the absolute and relative increase

Answer 1

Recall that -- absolute change is simply the final value minus the initial value; whereas relative change is "final" minus "initial" divided by the "initial". The relative change is usually presented as a percentage because it is a ratio of that difference relative to the initial value.

Given the problem at hand:

Initial value = 3250

Final value = 4950

And we see that since it is an increase in the town population, we are calling these changes the "absolute increase" and the "relative increase". So we plug in the values in their respective places and solve --

Absolute: Final - Initial = 4950 - 3250 = 1700

Relative: (Final - Initial) = (4950 - 3250) = 1700 = 0.52307 ≈ 0.52 • 100% = 52%

Initial 3250 3250

So the absolute increase is 1700 people, and the relative increase is 52%.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

4950 -3250 = 1700 = absolute change

1700/3250 = about 0.5231 = 52.31% relative change

it did occur over a 3 year period,

so you could also say it's about 52.31/3 = 17.44% annual relative change

and 1700/3 = 566 2/3 abolute annual change