India to Overtake China as the World’s Most Populous Country by mid-2023, Says UN Report

(CTN News) – The United Nations estimates that by the middle of this year, India will have surpassed China as the world’s most populous nation.

Compared to China’s 1,425.7 million, India’s population is expected to reach 1,428.6 million.

There will be 2.9% more Indians than their Asian neighbor.

Both India and China See Declines in Fertility Rates, Experts Say Growth is Slowing

However, since no new Census has been conducted in Indian since 2011, this figure is only an estimate.

Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that will be reunited with the mainland at some point, and the UN claims that their estimate does not account for the population of Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan.

But Taiwan considers itself separate from the Chinese mainland, boasting a democratically elected government and its constitution.

The world’s population hit 8 billion in November. However, analysts claim that current expansion rates are the lowest since 1950.

The birthrate in both India and China has been falling. Despite China’s 2016 abandonment of its one-child policy and the introduction of incentives for couples to have two or more children, the country’s population is expected to decrease next year.

Similar declines have occurred in India, where the fertility rate has dropped from 5.7 births per woman in 1950 to 2.2 births per woman in 2010.

Most Indians surveyed in a UNFPA poll expressed concern that the country’s enormous population and high fertility rates negatively impacted their lives. When asked about population increase, nearly two-thirds of respondents cited economic problems as their primary worry.

Although some may be alarmed by the prospect of India’s population eventually surpassing China’s, demographers advise you shouldn’t let that worry you.

The United Nations study states that “instead, they should be seen as a symbol of progress, development, and aspirations if individual rights and choices are upheld.”