Population of California Table 1.12 gives the population of California for several years.
Population of California
$$\begin{array}{ll}{\text { Year }} & {\text { Population (thousands) }} \\ {1980} & {23,668} \\ {1990} & {29,811} \\ {1995} & {31,697} \\ {1998} & {32,988} \\ {1999} & {33,499} \\ {2000} & {33,872}\end{array}$$
(a) Let $x=0$ represent $1980, x=1$ represent $1981,$ and so forth. Find an exponential regression for the data, and superimpose its graph on a scatter plot of the data.
(b) Use the exponential regression equation to estimate the population of California in $2003 .$ How close is the estimate to the actual population of $35,484,000$ in 2003$?$
(c) Use the exponential regression equation to estimate the annual rate of growth of the population of California.