Pretend the world's population in 1988 was 4.9 billion and that the projection for 2017, assuming exponential growth, is 7 billion.

Question

What annual rate of growth is assumed in this prediction?

Answer 1

I assume you want to find the annual rate of growth. So,

4.9(1+r)^(2017-1988) = 7
r = 0.012375 or about 1.2%