Question

I have population data for the last 50 years (total population for a country), that I need to make linear. In its original it has a positive relationship (looking at a scatter plot) but it is not linear. There are three smaller periods with large increases in population, which makes the scatter plot look almost like a jigsaw. I have tried transforming the data with logaritms, square roots etc but I do not succeed in making the scatter plot like more or less linear. Any advice?

Answer 1

Try doing 1/x or maybe x^3

Answer 2

Populations normally grow exponentially, so transforming your data with logarithms should work. What base did you use?
You might also try the natural logarithm.

Answer 3

You should remove these outliers or extreme values.