The declining farm population
The number of people living on American farms declined steadily during the past century. Here are data on the farm population (millions of persons) from 1935 to 2000:
Year
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1990
2000
Population
32.1
30.5
24.4
23.0
19.1
15.6
12.4
9.7
8.9
7.2
3.9
3.0
(a) Make a scatterplot of these data. Draw by eye a regression line for predicting a year's farm population.
(b) Extend your line to predict the number of people living on farms in 2020. Is this result reasonable? Why?