India will overtake China in population before the end of April, UN says

25 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs has shared its world population predictions, showing that India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country before the end of April.

UN estimates put at 1,425,775,850 people who will live in India before the end of April, thus surpassing the leading country in terms of population, China, which in 2022 reached its maximum at around 1,426,000,000 people, point from which it started to descend.

The main factor that alters population rates is the birth rate, which in China has been experiencing a decline for years compared to the birth rate it enjoyed in 1971, the year in which it was equal to India’s. The UN has explained that since then, the birth rate has dropped drastically in China, a decline that India has not experienced until three decades later, and that even so has occurred at a much slower rate.

In 2022, the birth rate in Beijing was 1.2 births per mother, while New Delhi saw 2 births per mother.

Although this department proposes the end of April as the date, they have clarified that it is very difficult to predict exactly when this change will take place. In fact, the State of Population 2023 report, published this month by the UN Population Fund, dated the surprise to the middle of this year.

As reported by the newspaper ‘Indian Express’, the country’s analysts have expressed their calm stating that there is no cause for alarm as it becomes the most populous country in the world, pointing out that India’s growth has slowed in recent years.

They have also recalled that this can have very positive consequences for the country’s economy, as long as investment is made and opportunities are created in the fields of education and youth employment.