Concept:Significant figures are the meaningful digits of a number. In a whole number without a decimal point, trailing zeros are only placeholders, so they are not counted.
Explanation:The population is given as approximately
5,020,700, which has no decimal point.
Write the number without commas as the digit string
5020700.
The last two zeros are trailing zeros, so they are not significant.
This leaves the digits
50207.
The zero between
5 and
2 is significant because it lies between nonzero digits.
The zero between
2 and
7 is also significant for the same reason.
Therefore, the significant digits are
5,
0,
2,
0, and
7.
Counting them gives
5 significant figures.
Answer:D.
5 significant figures