UNITED NATIONS: India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by the end of this month when its population is expected to reach 1.425 billion, according to the United Nations.
India’s population is projected to stabilise after the year 2064 and will be around 1.5 billion at the end of the century, a senior UN official said on Monday.
“India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country during the current month – April of 2023. Chinese population reached its peak size of 1.4 billion in 2022, and has begun to decline,” Director, Population Division, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), John Wilmoth said at a news briefing here.
Wilmoth said that projections indicate that the size of the Chinese population could drop below 1 billion before the end of the century.
“In India, by contrast, the population is expected to continue growing for several decades,” he said.
According to the forecast based on the latest United Nations estimates and projections of the global population released on Monday, India will dethrone China as the world’s most populous nation by end of this month when its population is expected to reach 1.425 billion.
In response to a question, Senior Population Affairs Officer, Population Division, DESA Sarah Hertog said that the agency’s medium projection indicates that India’s population could stop growing around 2064 and stabilise thereafter.
She, however, cautioned that there is some uncertainty around that projection.
“We project that the population of India will be around 1.5 billion at the end of the century in the medium period,” Hertog said.
Last week, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said in its State of World Population report “8 Billion Lives, Infinite Possibilities: the case for rights and choices” that India will become the world’s most populous nation by mid-year 2023 when its population will be 1.428 billion, surpassing China’s 1.425 billion people.
The policy brief released on Monday states that India’s population will overtake that of China this month.