According to United Nations estimates released on Wednesday, India is set to become the world’s most populous country by mid-2023, surpassing China by nearly three million people.
India’s population will be 1.4286 billion compared to China’s 1.4257 billion, according to a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report on the state of the world’s population.
According to official data released earlier this year, China’s population fell last year for the first time since 1960-1961, after a famine that began in 1959 killed tens of millions as a result of mistakes in the ” great leap forward.” “.
Paradoxically, this decline in China’s population comes despite the relaxation of birth control policies in recent years.
Ten years ago, the Chinese were only allowed to have one child. Since 2021 they are allowed to have three.
This decline is generally attributed to the sharp increase in the cost of living in China and the cost of raising a child. The higher level of education among women also delays pregnancy.
No census
India has no official data on its population as it has not conducted a census since 2011.
India’s census, which only takes place every ten years, was supposed to take place in 2021 but had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Logistical obstacles and political reluctance are now preventing it from happening, and this large-scale exercise is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been accused by critics of deliberately delaying the census to avoid releasing data on sensitive issues like unemployment ahead of next year’s national elections.
India’s economy is struggling to provide jobs for the millions of young people who enter the workforce each year.
Half of the Asian giant’s population is under the age of 30.
The country also faces tremendous difficulties in producing enough electricity, food and housing for its growing population. Big cities are already struggling to cope.
8 billion people in the world
According to the Pew Research Center, an American think tank, India’s population has increased by more than a billion people since 1950, the year the United Nations began collecting demographic data.
The UNFPA report also estimates that the world population will reach 8.045 billion by the same date.
Other countries, especially in Europe and Asia, must reckon with a demographic collapse in the coming decades, according to the UN data on the development of the world population up to 2100 published last July.
For example, Africa’s population is projected to grow from 1.4 billion to 3.9 billion by 2100, representing 38% of the world’s population, compared to around 18% today.
Eight countries with more than 10 million people, most of them in Europe, including Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Romania, have seen their populations decline over the past decade, July data showed.
According to the data, Japan is also experiencing a decline due to the aging of its population, with a population drop of more than three million between 2011 and 2021.
As far as the world population is concerned, it is only likely to decrease from the 2090s, not before having peaked at 10.4 billion people according to the United Nations.