India is on track to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, according to data analysis from the United Nations.
The population of India is expected to reach 1.4286 billion, 2.9 million more than China’s 1.4257 billion, according to a report from the BBC.
For the past 70 years, the two Asian nations have made up over a third of the total global population, the BBC reported. China’s birth rate has started to decline, with its population experiencing an unprecedented fall since 1961.
The forecast in the United Nations report remains an estimate, as there has not been a census in India since 2011. The planned 2021 census was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was ultimately postponed till 2022. Now, it has been pushed even further back to 2024.
#India #population to overtake #China‘s by 2.9 million by mid-2023: #UN report@ShravaniSinha https://t.co/j1yKcZC25F
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 19, 2023
Patrick Garland, the Chief of Population Estimates and Projection at the United Nations told the BBC that any numbers regarding India’s accurate population size are “naïve assumptions based on fragmental information.”
“We don’t have real official data coming out from India,” Garland said.
The UN said that its estimate did not include the population of two main Special Administrative Regions, Hong Kong and Macau. These two area have a combined population of over 8 million. The BBC said in a report.
In November, the global population passed a global milestone as it crossed over the 8-billion mark. However, experts have said that this growth has slowed down significantly, sitting at the slowest rate since 1950. (RELATED: World Population Reaches 8 Billion People)