India overtakes China as world’s most populous country
India has overtaken China as the world’s most populous nation, Bloomberg reported, citing United Nations data released Wednesday.
India’s population surpassed 1.4286 billion, slightly higher than China’s 1.4257 billion people, according to mid-2023 estimates by the UN’s World Population dashboard. China’s numbers do not include Hong Kong and Macau, Special Administrative Regions of China, and Taiwan, the data showed.
Asia’s third-largest economy is now home to nearly a fifth of humanity — greater than the entire population of Europe or Africa or the Americas. While this is also true for China for now, that’s expected to change as India’s population is forecast to keep ticking up and touch 1.668 billion by 2050 when China’s population is forecast to contract to about 1.317 billion.
“India’s story is a powerful one. It is a story of progress in education, public health and sanitation, economic development as well as technological advancements,” said Andrea Wojnar, Representative United Nations Population Fund India and Country Director Bhutan on State of the World Population Report.
India seized the top spot as it added about 23 million babies in 2022, while China’s population started shrinking for first time in six decades with about 9.56 million newborns last year.