[In a table headed "Population of Australian states", the rows are labelled with Australian states, the three columns are labelled "2002 population," "2003 population," and "Percentage increase from previous year". The columns contain figures. The box showing the 2003 population of South Australia contains only a question mark. The narrator reads out the onscreen text.]

NARRATOR: Question one. Mira made this table showing the population data over two years for the six Australian states. Some data for South Australia is not shown. What was the population of South Australia closest to in 2003 - 2 537 500, 2 436 000, 1 613 800 or 1 531 600?

[The table shows the following figures for South Australia. The 2002 population was 1 522 475, and the percentage increase was 0.6%.]

NARRATOR: In solution method one, we'll first consider calculating the increase and then add that on to the 2002 population. So we know that the 2003 population is the 2002 population increased by 0.6%. So we'll first calculate 0.6% of the 2002 population, so 0.6% of the 2002 population - which is 1 522 475. 0.6% is 0.006, multiplied by the 2002 population - which is 1 522 475 - and this gives 9135 people correct to the nearest person. So the 2003 population is the 2002 population of 1 522 475 plus the 0.6% increase - which is 9135 - giving a 2003 population of 1 531 610 people correct to the nearest person. So the population of the South Australian state in 2003 is closest to 1 531 600.

In solution method two, rather than calculate the 0.6% increase separately, we'll instead consider this as one percentage change. So the 2003 population is equal to the 2002 population increased by 0.6%. So we have 100% of the original population and we're adding on an additional 0.6%. So in total, our 2003 population is 100.6% of the 2002 population. So 100.6% is 1.006 of the 2002 population - which is 1 522 475 - which works out as 1 531 610 people correct to the nearest person. So again, we can see that the population of South Australia in 2003 was in fact closest to 1 531 600.