Currently people in the United States eat, on the average, 1,431 pounds of food per year, 35 pounds more than in 1980. This increase is, at least in part, because people between the ages of 15 and 64 have accounted for an increasing share of the population.

Which of the following can be properly inferred from the passage above?

• AMore than half of the current population of the United States is between the ages of 15 and 64  
• BThe population has risen since 1980  
• CChildren below the age of 15 require, on the average, more food than do people over the age of 64  
• DBefore 1980 children below the age of 15 outnumbered people between the ages of 15 and 64  
• EIndividuals between the ages of 15 and 64 consume, on the average, more food than do those younger or older