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It took hundreds of thousands of years for the world population to grow to 1 billion. However, in just another two centuries, it grew sevenfold. You know, in 2011, the total population of the world reached 7 billion. And today, it's about 7.5 billion. Tokyo, with 37.8 million residents, continues to be the largest city in the world in terms of population.

Advances in modern medicine are the main cause of this dramatic growth in the world population. It helps the birth rates increase and the death rates decline. The second contributor is the improvement in living standards. This leads to the rise of global lifespan, from 64.8 years in the early 1990s to 70.0 years today. Last but not least, the number of women of reproductive age is increasing day by day.

However, the rapid population growth can lead to the shortage in medical and educational facilities and services. The population grows fast so the demand for energy also increases. Therefore, energy shortages are also a big problem. In addition, air, water and land pollution caused by growing population in big cities has bad effects on people's health.

How many people were there in the world in 2011?

• A. 
  1 billion
• B. 
  7 billion
• C. 
  7.5 billion
• D. 
  37.8 million