Despite vs although

The answer is E.

The subject is "citizens." Logically, the "citizens" ACCOUNT for 5% of the world's population. "Citizens" do not HAVE 5% of the world's population.

"United States" is an adjective here describing the noun "citizens."

IMO:B

Hi Vivian,

I have a doubt,
Why can't US citizens account for 5% of the world population?
Are we expected to dig deep into logical reasoning for Sentence correction/VR questions?
Please clarify!

TIA,
GK

I'm a little confused here, here is my understanding-

With only 5% of world's population, United States citizens consume 28% of its non renewable resources, drive more than one third of its automobiles, and use 21 times more water per capita than Europeans do.

1.) Despite having
2.)Although accounting for

For this sentence I will pick 1.) Despite having -

Despite having only 5% of world's population, United States citizens ....
here the underlined portion is talking about United States not citizens.

If I were to pick 2.) Although accounting for, then the sentence will be-

Although accounting for only 5% of world's population, United States' citizens ....
Now the underlined portion is modifying citizens of United States.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Vivian , i thought although is a subordinating conjunction and needs to be followed by a subordinate clause
although accounting for is not a clause :It has no subject or verb .confused .
is it the same case with the while subordinating conjunction