The population of a country is now 67,200,000.
The population is predicted to:

• increase by 1% per year for 6 years
• and then decrease by 1.2% per year for 2 years.
  Work out the predicted population of the country 8 years from now. Give your answer to 3 significant figures.

This is a compound percentage change problem. We can solve it by using multipliers. Step 1: Find the multiplier for the 1% increase. An increase of 1% means we have 100% + 1% = 101% of the original amount. As a decimal, this is 1.01. Step 2: Find the multiplier for the 1.2% decrease. A decrease of 1.2% means we have 100% - 1.2% = 98.8% of the original amount. As a decimal, this is 0.988. Step 3: Set up the calculation for the 8-year period. The population starts at 67,200,000. It increases by 1% for 6 years, so we multiply by (1.01)⁶. Then it decreases by 1.2% for 2 years, so we multiply by (0.988)². The full calculation is: Final Population = 67,200,000 × (1.01)⁶ × (0.988)² Step 4: Calculate the result. Final Population = 69,631,833.108... Step 5: Round to 3 significant figures. The first three significant figures are 6, 9, and 6. The fourth digit is 3, which is less than 5, so we round down. Final Population ≈ 69,600,000.