The question is based on the following passage. Population growth occurs because there are currently three births for every death. In the past, the crude birth rates were only slightly higher than crude death rates, but with improvements in medicine and economic growth, the death rate fell more than birth rates. Much of the world’s population growth is occurring in less-developed countries, which are unable to support such growth. The causal effect between poverty and population growth can be looked at in two ways. First, population growth causes poverty as the limited resources are depleted and there are tooo many people for the available goods, resulting in poverty. The other view is that poverty causes a high population growth because of a lack of education, health care, and a reasonable living standard. Also, parents believe that having many children will ensure that several of them will survive to take care of them in their old age. Cultures in which children are a form of security encourage high population growth, as children reach reproductive age and have large families. Much of the growth is happening disproportionately in urban areas. Cities are environmentally harmful because they import many resources for the people that live there, and they export their wastes. They also have an impact on the local and regional meteorology and are centers for social problems such as crime, homelessness, and unemployment, to name a few. Cities do offer many amenities such as cultural opportunities, jobs, and education. There are some good environmental aspects to cities, such as the promotion of efficiency in transportation, housing, utilities, the provision of necessary goods and services, and the accommodation of large numbers of people within a relatively small space. The biggest problem with cities is that people want the benefits of a city while still living in the country. This leads to urban sprawl and suburbia. (Adapted from https://www.preservearticles.com/201103304817. Accessed February 22, 2014) The pronoun "they" (paragraph 2, sentence 2) refers to ....

Question

The question is based on the following passage.

Population growth occurs because there are currently three births for every death. In the past, the crude birth rates were only slightly higher than crude death rates, but with improvements in medicine and economic growth, the death rate fell more than birth rates. Much of the world’s population growth is occurring in less-developed countries, which are unable to support such growth. The causal effect between poverty and population growth can be looked at in two ways. First, population growth causes poverty as the limited resources are depleted and there are tooo many people for the available goods, resulting in poverty. The other view is that poverty causes a high population growth because of a lack of education, health care, and a reasonable living standard. Also, parents believe that having many children will ensure that several of them will survive to take care of them in their old age. Cultures in which children are a form of security encourage high population growth, as children reach reproductive age and have large families.

Much of the growth is happening disproportionately in urban areas. Cities are environmentally harmful because they import many resources for the people that live there, and they export their wastes. They also have an impact on the local and regional meteorology and are centers for social problems such as crime, homelessness, and unemployment, to name a few. Cities do offer many amenities such as cultural opportunities, jobs, and education. There are some good environmental aspects to cities, such as the promotion of efficiency in transportation, housing, utilities, the provision of necessary goods and services, and the accommodation of large numbers of people within a relatively small space. The biggest problem with cities is that people want the benefits of a city while still living in the country. This leads to urban sprawl and suburbia.

(Adapted from https://www.preservearticles.com/201103304817. Accessed February 22, 2014)

The pronoun "they" (paragraph 2, sentence 2) refers to .... $\;\;$