Great Plains population growth lags behind rest of the U.S.

• Position: Graph Exercise

For more than 70 years, people in rural areas of the Great Plains states have been leaving home for greener pastures. But the exodus has accelerated in recent years as the region's economy has suffered from the loss of family farms and the closure of small businesses. As these economic difficulties have swept across this once-vibrant part of the U.S., the exodus of people has had a serious impact. Some small towns have lost most of their population. Others are ghost towns. With two notable exceptions--Colorado and Texas--population growth in these states lags far behind that of the United States as a whole. In North Dakota, the population has actually declined in recent years.

The data in this graph show how much the population in the U.S. and in 12 Great Plains states changed between 2000 and 2002. Use the data to answer the questions below.

1. One state's population increase between 2000 and 2002 was almost exactly one half that of the U.S. Which state is it?

2. Look at the states with growth rates below 1 percent. If you doubled the growth rate of one of those states, it would match exactly the growth rate of two other states. Identify the first, second, and third states.

3. If you cut Colorado's growth rate by 50 percent in the period shown, the resulting figure would be almost exactly that of another entry in the graph. Which entry?

4. What is the percentage-point difference between North Dakota's population growth and that of Nebraska?

   (a) 2.6

   (b) 3

   (c) 4

   (d) 2.3

5. If you cut the U.S...