India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country this year

India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country by the middle of this year, according to UN projections released on Wednesday.

India will reach 1,428.6 million inhabitants by mid-year, above China’s 1,425.7 million, according to the report of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on the State of World Population.

The Chinese population decreased last year for the first time in more than six decades, according to official figures released months ago.

Many attribute the Chinese decline to rising cost of living as well as the largest number of women in the workforce and higher education.

Beijing ended its strict one-child-per-family policy in 2016, imposed in the 1980s amid fears of overpopulation, and in 2021 began allowing couples to have three children.

China envisions a continued demographic decline in the face of falling birth rates and the aging workforce.

Several regions of the country have announced plans to boost the birth rate, but official efforts so far have failed to reverse the demographic decline.

India does not have recent data on the number of its inhabitants because it has not conducted a census since 2011. The census that India conducts every decade was scheduled for 2021 but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Currently facing logistical obstacles and political reluctance, it seems unlikely that it will conduct a census anytime soon.

Critics accuse the government of deliberately postponing the census to hide controversial information such as unemployment ahead of the 2024 national elections.

The Indian economy, under the Prime Minister’s rule Narendra Modifights to provide employment for the millions of young people who enter the labor force each year.

Half of the country’s population is under 30 years of age.

It also faces the challenge of supplying electricity, food and shelter to its growing population.

World population

According to him Pew Research CentreIndia’s population has increased by more than 1 billion people since 1950, the year the UN began collecting population data.

The report of UNFPA indicates that the world population will reach 8.045 million people by mid-year.

Other countries, especially in Europe and Asia, point to demographic declines in the coming decades, according to other UN figures released in July, which anticipate how the world population will behave until the year 2100.

Eight nations with more than 10 million people, mostly in Europe, have seen population declines over the past decade.

By contrast, Africa’s population should increase from 1.4 billion today to 3.9 billion in 2100. That continent will be home to 38% of the world’s people, up from 18% today. Japan is also facing a decline due to the aging of its population that led to a reduction of three million inhabitants between 2011 and 2021.

Meanwhile, the planet’s population as a whole will decline in the 2090s after reaching a peak of 10.4 billion, according to the UN.