The table shows the approximate number of people in a small city for given years.

Year Population
1990 4,500
1995 5,010
2000 5,500
2005 5,980
2010 6,500

Which is the best conjecture for the city's population in 2015?

I will give a medal

Question

The table shows the approximate number of people in a small city for given years.

Year Population 
1990 4,500 
1995 5,010 
2000 5,500 
2005 5,980 
2010 6,500

Which is the best conjecture for the city's population in 2015?
 
I will give a medal

anonymous · Answer

Here you are looking for the mean of the distances from the mean or Mean Absolute Deviation

The mean is 5498
Here are the distances:
998
488
2
482
1002

The mean of those distances is the average increase per 5 years

The average increase in 5 years is 594.4

given the 6500 for 2010 if you add 594.4 you get  7094 rounded to the nearest person.