To find how many rabbits were there last year, we start with the information given:
The rabbit population this year (1,100) is 500% of last year's population (let's denote last year's population as \( w \)).
We can express this relationship as:
\[ 1,100 = 5 \times w \]
This is because 500% is equivalent to 5 (since \( 500/100 = 5 \)).
Now, we can express the percent proportion as follows:
\[ \frac{1,100}{w} = \frac{500}{100} \]
So, the complete equation looks like:
\[ \frac{1,100}{w} = \frac{500}{100} \]
This proportion shows the relationship between this year's rabbit population and last year's rabbit population in terms of percentage.
To find \( w \), we can rearrange the equation:
\[ 1,100 = 5 \times w \implies w = \frac{1,100}{5} = 220 \]
Therefore, there were 220 rabbits last year.