So, after one year will will have the new population of 23 000 * (100 %+2%)
(the 100 % is the old population and the 2% is the increase), that is:
23000*1.02=23460
(102 % can be represented as 1.02)
And for the next years, we have to repeat the procedure.
a more generic rule would be:
y=23000*[tex] 1.02^{x} [/tex] (x is the number of years passed)