New Delhi: India has now become the most populous country in the world by leaving behind China in demography, says a United Nations (UN) report. In the latest data released by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), India is on its way to becoming the world’s most populous country and it has also overtaken the Asian giant by becoming home to 2.9 million more population than China. The demographics data released by UNFPA’s ‘The State of World Population Report, 2023’ on Wednesday said that India’s population stands at estimated 1.4286 billion while China’ has been estimated at 1.4257 billion, a difference of about 2.9 million. “Yes, though it is unclear exactly when the crossover took place and direct comparisons can be hard due to the slightly different timings of countries’ individual data collection,” Anna Jefferys, media and crisis communications advisor, UNFPA told newsmen, briefing about this transition. The latest UN data is based on latest information as available till February 2023. No specific date was announced for this but the UN experts did said on record earlier that India will overtake China in population, this month. This is the first time that India has gone ahead of China in human population since 1950, the first time when population data was taken & counted. Slowing pace of growth in India & China Today, India and China account for more than one-third of the global population (8 billion), however the pace of population growth has been declining in both countries, owing to public awareness programs. The decline is more noticeable in China. Last year, the Asian giant witnessed a decline in population growth, the first time since 1961. Its population declined by about 8.5 lakh in year 2022. Notably, China abolished its one-child policy last year and also permitted couples to have as many as 3 kids.
