The population of a city decreases by 4% per year. What should we multiply the current population by to find next year's population in one step?

Answer 1

To find the population for the next year after a decrease of 4%, you should multiply the current population by \( (1 - 0.04) \), since a decrease of 4% means you retain 96% of the population.

Calculating that:

\[ 1 - 0.04 = 0.96 \]

Therefore, you should multiply the current population by 0.96 to find next year's population in one step.