According to the United Nations Data, India has now crossed China to become the most populous country in the world.
The UN world population dashboard stated that India now has 1428.6 million people while China’s population stands at 1425.7 million. This is for the first time India has topped the United Nations’ list of most populated countries since the UN began collecting population data in 1950.
The year before, China’s population shrank for the first time since 1960. In 2016, Beijing ended its strict “one-child policy,” imposed in the 1980s amid overpopulation fears, and began letting couples have three children in 2021.
China faces an impending demographic decline as its workforce ages and fertility rates decrease.
Meanwhile, the United States is in the third position with an estimated population of 340 million. India has not performed a census since 2011. Hence there are no fresh official statistics available on its population size.
The once-in-a-decade census in India was scheduled to take place in 2021 but was postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
According to UN data, the global population is expected to reach 8.045 billion by mid-2023.
