State Populations

1. a) In this activity we will study the change in population in the states from 2010 to 2020. Before proceeding, think about which states experienced the greatest growth from 2010 to 2020 and which states experienced the least growth. In your Word document, write a short paragraph listing the two states you think grew the most and which two states your group thinks grew the least or declined the most. In your paragraph briefly indicate the factors you believe are driving the growth or decline.

b) Open the file State Census Populations, which contains official decennial census population figures for all states. Fill the last column with the difference between the 2020 and 2010 populations for each state. This quantity is called the absolute change. Frequently, we call this simply the change in population. To fill, you can double click on the small box in the bottom right hand corner of the first cell; alternately, you can left click on this small box, then holding the mouse button down, drag the pattern to the bottom of the column.)

c) Using Excel's column sorting tools, determine the three states that had the largest increase (positive change) in population from 2010 to 2020.

d) Fill column G with the percentage change in population from 2010 to 2020 for each state. Remember to label your column, and recall that the percentage change in a quantity is defined to be the absolute change divided by the value at the start:

Percentage change is always expressed as a percentage; for example 0.342 is expressed as 34.2%. To express your values in percent click on the percentage button in the toolbars near the top of screen. You may express more decimals in your values by clicking a number of times on the "Increase Decimal" button ; to express fewer decimals click on the "Decrease Decimal" button .

e) Using Excel's sorting tools, determine the three states that had the largest percentage increase in population from 2010 to 2020.

f) Why does the first list, created by sorting by absolute increase, differ so much from the second, sorted by percentage increase.