Although I did this investigation in Mathematics at the beginning of the year, I decided it was interesting to share this investigation as according to some estimates, Sweden’s population has reached ten million.

Introduction:

This will be a report based on the question, “When Will Sweden’s Population Reach 10 million”. I got interested in this question for 3 reasons. Firstly, I am Swedish so this makes sense that I am doing a population question regarding Sweden. Furthermore, Sweden is really close to hitting 10 million people and although Sweden is a relativity big country, there aren’t many people. Finally, last year we looked at the population in Humanities and I got interested why a developed country like Sweden has an increasing population. This investigation could help me lead to that conclusion and teach me more about my country that I call home (or at least, one of them).

Data Table:

	Year	Population (Millions)
	1900	5.14
	1910	5.499
	1920	5.876
	1930	6.131
	1940	6.356
	1950	7.014
	1960	7.485
	1970	8.043
	1980	8.311
	1990	8.559
	2000	8.872
	2010	9.378
	2016	9.903

 

Graph 1 (with a line of best fit as y=mx+b):

Here I have a graph that I made in TI-nspire CX calculator. As you can see I have the year on the x-axis and population on the y-axis. I drew first a line of best fit and using the equation above, I found that in this model, Sweden’s population of 10 million will happen in the year 2025. As you can see in this graph below:

I have graphed two functions: f(x)=10 and x=2025. I’ve rounded the equation from the graph before this because this equation gives me an exact answer for when Sweden’s Population will reach 10 million: 2025. This is, however, only what I get from a line graph, if I were to graph the line of best fit exponentially, it would be different so here it is:

Graph 2 (with line of best fit as exponentially)

 

Here I have a graph with an exponential line of best fit and with this graph, I get different results. In this graph, the line appears to be growing but of course, this line would eventually come to a plateau or even decrease. However, in this model, it appears to be that in 2017 the population will reach 10 million. However, there is a flaw because it is 2017 now so it seems to be more likely to happen in 2018. This is because Sweden’s population as of today is 9.932 million which is really close to 10 million so this model seems to be more accurate

.

As you can see here, I have once again plotted 2 functions: f(x)=10 and x=2017. By using these three functions, I can now see that in the year 2017 (or as I have said before, more likely 2018). This is why I have tried adding the data from 2017 and I get:

 

Graph 3 (New and Improved Version):

 

As you can see from the graph (this is a close up view) these new data points tell me that in 2019, Sweden’s population will reach 10 million. This seems like the most reasonable graph so far.

Evaluation and Conclusion:

First of all, I just want to start saying why I think Sweden’s population is growing. Sweden’s population is growing up Swedish population isn’t. What this means is that there are many immigrants and refugees moving into Sweden which increases Sweden’s population but not the general Swedish population. This is one thing I have learned. Furthermore, I have learned that adding the 2017 data point and using the exponential line of best fit is the best form of a model for this kind of question. This is why I conclude that Sweden’s population will reach 10 million in 2019. However, I have looked at another study and they say that by the end of 2017, Sweden will have more than 10 million people. This means that my graph #2 is the most accurate and now I believe that my graph #3 used a data point that was fully complete (as it is not the end of 2017). Finally, the answer to this question is that Sweden’s population will reach 10 million somewhere between the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2019.

Work Cited:

1. Magnusson, Niklas. “Sweden’s Population Is About to Reach 10 Million.” com, Bloomberg, 5 Jan. 2017, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-05/watch-out-sweden-hits-10-million-people.
2. “Sweden Population (LIVE).” Sweden Population (2017) – Worldometers, worldometers.info/world-population/sweden-population/.
3. Gendell, M. “Sweden’s Population Grows, Swedish Population Doesn’t.” Population Today., U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 1984, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12265969.
4. “Demographics of Sweden.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics of Sweden.

 

 

By Oscar Landgren 9KAL