I have a problem with calculating and interpreting ratios. Please let me start by saying that me and my team are suffering from huge data gaps and, therefore, we have no choice but to use all resources we have. This is my problem: I want to calculate how many new buildings were built (per 100 buildings between 2001 - 2011) per population growth (% between 2001 and 2011). If I divide the first (proportion of new buildings) by the latter (population growth), what does this really mean?! For example, one of the cities had a ratio of -1008. I know that this means that there was much more construction than population growth, but how can I interpret the number exactly? What does 1008 really mean?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Marta