The death rate fell, life expectancy increased, and population growth gradually accelerated. This growth, however, was set back at intervals by famines, plagues, and wars, any of which could wipe out as much as half of the population in a given area. As late as the fourteenth century, the back death ( bubonic plague ) killed one-third of the population of Europe. Despite these catastrophic events, by 1880, the world’s population had grown to almost 1 billion, implying an annual growth rate of a mere 0.08 percent between 1 C.E. and 1800.