Question

the table below shows the number of people who were living in a village from 2005 to 2010.

year (x)	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010

what is the meaning of the slope of the line of best fit for these data?

• the annual increase in the number of people that were living in the village
• the original number of people that were living in the village
• the maximum number of people that could live in the village

Explanation:

In a linear model for time-series data where the independent variable is year ($x$) and the dependent variable is population ($y$), the slope represents the average rate of change of $y$ per unit change in $x$. Here, each unit of $x$ is one year, so the slope is the average annual increase in the village's population. The original population would be the y-intercept, and the maximum possible population is not related to the slope of this trend line.

Answer:

the annual increase in the number of people that were living in the village