Given:
A city's population has increased 40% in the last 5 years and is now 53,782 people.
To find:
The population 5 years ago.
Solution:
Let x be the population 5 years ago.
A city's population has increased 40% in the last 5 years.
So, present population is
[tex]x+x\times \dfrac{40}{100}=x+0.4x=1.4x[/tex]
It is given that the present population is 53782.
[tex]1.4x=53782[/tex]
[tex]x=\dfrac{53782}{1.4}[/tex]
[tex]x=38415.7142857[/tex]
[tex]x\approx 38416[/tex]
Therefore, the population 5 years ago was about 38416.
