Is the Growth Exponential?
The graph below shows the population, in millions, of people age 85 and older in the United States for selected years from 1960 to 2010 and projected to 2050.
a) Does the graph approximate the graph of an exponential function?
b) Estimate the number of U.S. people age 85 and older in 2000.
a) Yes, the graph has the approximate shape of an exponential function. A function that increases rapidly with this general shape is, or approximates, an exponential function.
b) From the graph, we see that there were about 5 million people in the United States who were age 85 or older in 2000.