weet ~62- D. Population Trends and Projections The population characteristics discussed above were extracted from ya feet, Owes Aner data compiled in the TT Census of 1973, the Trust Territory's last offi- ; cial population enumeration. When they are compared with data contained in the 1967 TTPI Census a number of Significant changes in the size, com- position, and distribution of Micronesia's population become evident. In the following Section, we establish these population "trends" (changes — between 1967 and 1973), and use them to project plausible patterns of future growth. Our projections assune, of course, that the components of future population growth wil] continue to closely approximate the rates existing between 1967 and 1973. 7/ The left-hand side of TableIV-6 contains the 1967 and 1973, TTPI citizen populations of each district, and shows the average annual growth rate for each district, as calculated using a formula based on the principle of compound interest. The table shows that between 1967 and 1973 ficranesia's population grew at a very hign rate (3.6 percent annually); if this rate of growth continues, the population will double from 1973 levels by 1993--a period of only twenty years. This extremely high rate of growth 18 dus primarily to high rates of "natural increase'--in other words, most areas of the TTPI have high birth rates and low Table V-6 death rates. , which shows that all This fact is reflected in the districts of the Trust Territory, q