India to have 2.9m more people than China by mid-2023, UN estimate shows
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India’s annual population growth has averaged 1.2 per cent since 2011.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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NEW DELHI – India is on its way to becoming the world’s most populous country, overtaking China with almost three million more people in the middle of 2023, data released on Wednesday by the United Nations showed.
The demographic data from the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) “State of World Population Report, 2023” estimates India’s population will be 1,428.6 million or 1.4286 billion against 1.4257 billion for China. The United States is a distant third, with an estimated population of 340 million, the data shows. The data reflects information available as at February 2023, the report said.
Population experts using previous data from the UN have projected that India would go past China in April. But the latest report from the global body did not specify a date for when the change would take place.
UN population officials have said that it was not possible to specify a date due to “uncertainty” about the data coming out of India and China, especially since India’s last census was conducted in 2011 and the next one due in 2021 has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although India and China will account for more than one-third of the estimated global population of 8.045 billion, the population growth in both Asian giants has been slowing, at a much faster pace in China than in India.
In 2022, China’s population fell for the first time in six decades,
India’s annual population growth has averaged 1.2 per cent since 2011, compared with 1.7 per cent in the 10 years previously, according to government data.
“The Indian survey findings suggest that population anxieties have seeped into large portions of the public,” Ms Andrea Wojnar, Representative for UNFPA India, said in a statement.
“Yet, population numbers should not trigger anxiety or create alarm. Instead, they should be seen as a symbol of progress, development and aspirations if individual rights and choices are being upheld,” she said. REUTERS
