India is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by mid-year with almost three million more people, UN estimates showed on Wednesday. India’s population will be 1.4286 billion compared to China’s 1.4257 billion at mid-year, the United Nations Population Fund’s State of World Population report showed.
The number of people in China shrank last year for the first time since 1960, when millions starved to death under the disastrous agricultural policies of former leader Mao Zedong. Many have blamed the slowdown on the soaring cost of living as well as the growing number of women going into the workforce and seeking higher education. Beijing ended its strict “one-child policy”, imposed in the 1980s amid overpopulation fears, in 2016 and started letting couples have three children in 2021.
China faces a looming demographic decline as birth rates plunge and its workforce ages. Several regions have also announced plans to boost birth rates –- but official efforts have so far failed to reverse the decline. India has no recent official data on how many people it has because it has not conducted a census since 2011.—INP
