What BEST explains the cause of the rapid growth in the world’s population even though the birth rate is falling?

World population growth is caused by the fact that the world’s birth rate is higher than its death rate. Be careful with questions that ask for a cause. Just because the birth rate is falling while population is increasing doesn’t mean there’s a causal relationship between the two trends. A falling birth rate has the effect of reducing population growth, making answer (Both a falling death and a falling birth rate have the effect of causing the world’s population to grow) incorrect. In this case, that downward pressure on population growth is offset by a falling death rate, which is keeping the gap between the birth rate and the death rate about the same. It’s impossible for a birth rate near zero (meaning almost no births) to produce population growth unless, somehow, death has been eliminated . Answer (Seventy-five percent of the world’s people live on 5 percent of the earth’s surface) is a correct factual statement, but one that does not explain why the world’s population is increasing.