India to Overtake China as World’s Most Populous Country by Mid-2023, Population to Reach 1.42 Billion
India is on its way to becoming the most populous country in the world with a population of 1.428 billion, almost three million more people than China, a UN report released on Wednesday showed.
The United Nations Population Fund’s State of World Population report showed India’s population to be 1.428 billion compared to China’s 1.425 billion at mid-year. The population data, quoted by the UN, was the estimated size of national populations at mid-year, it said.
While the fertility rate in India stands at 2.0, China’s fertility rate was 1.2. It is for the first time that India’s population has overtaken China’s since 1950 when the UN began to collect and release population data.
While China has an ageing population with stagnant growth, India has a much younger population, a higher fertility rate and a decrease in infant mortality over the last three decades.
The report stated that 25% of the people in India are in the 0-14 age category, 18% were in the 10-19 age category, 26% in the 10-24 age category, 68% in the 15-64 age category and 7% are aged 65 years or older.
India to Overtake China as World’s Most Populous Country by Mid-2023, Population to Reach 1.42 Billion© Provided by News18
The corresponding figures for China are 17%, 12%, 18%, 69% and 14%, which means the country has nearly 200 million above 65 years of age.
While India and China are the first two spots, the United States is at a distant third, with an estimated population of 340 million, the report said.
Estimates by different agencies have suggested that India’s population is expected to keep rising for nearly three decades before it peaks at 165 crore and then start declining. Kerala and Punjab have an ageing population while Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have a young population, experts have said.
India has no recent official data on how many people it has because it has not conducted a census since 2011. India’s census, scheduled for 2021, was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Pew Research Centre, India’s population has grown by more than one billion people since 1950, the year the UN began gathering population data.
