The figures released by the UN show that India will surpass China as the world’s most populated nation by the middle of this year, adding roughly three million more people.
According to Aljazeera, India’s population is estimated to be 1.4286 billion based on UNFPA demographic data, compared to China’s population of 1.4257 billion.
The study revealed that eight nations – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania will account for half of the predicted increase in the world’s population by 2050.
The data is based on knowledge as of February 2023, according to the report.
Using prior UN data, population analysts predicted that India will surpass China this month. But a timeframe for the change’s implementation was not included in the most recent report from the international organization.
Due to “uncertainty” regarding the data coming out of China and India, UN population experts have stated that it is not possible to identify a date. This is particularly true given that India’s previous census was performed in 2011 and that the country’s upcoming 2021 census has been delayed due to the pandemic.
Even though the two Asian giants will make up more than one-third of the projected world population of 8.045 billion, China’s population growth has been slower than India’s, and vice versa.
For the first time in six decades, China’s population declined last year. This historic development is likely to signal the beginning of a protracted period of declining citizen numbers, which will have significant effects on China’s economy and the rest of the globe.
According to government statistics, India’s population has grown by an average of 1.2 percent annually since 2011, down from a 10-year average of 1.7 percent.
According to a representative for UNFPA India, Andrea Wojnar, “the Indian survey findings suggest that population anxieties have seeped into large portions of the general public.”
“However, population figures shouldn’t be alarming or cause worry. If individual rights and preferences are upheld, they should be viewed as a sign of growth, development, and aspirations,” she said.
According to the UN, the world should focus on women’s reproductive rights in order to strengthen “demographic resilience” rather than becoming fixated on the effects of the world’s rapidly growing population.
The population of the globe, which is anticipated to reach a peak of roughly 10.4 billion people in the 2080s, is something that the UNFPA admitted was a source of widespread fear.
The UNFPA, however, insisted that the emphasis should be on allowing women more autonomy over the timing and mode of childbearing.
“Can everyone exercise their fundamental human freedom to decide the number and spacing of their children?’ is the question. Sadly, the answer is a loud negative, according to the head of UNFPA, Natalia Kanem.
She stated that “44 percent, or nearly half of all women, are unable to exercise bodily autonomy, unable to make decisions regarding healthcare, contraception, and whether or not to have sex. Additionally, almost half of all pregnancies worldwide are unwanted.”
India’s population is growing, yet fewer women are working. According to Kanem, nations with the highest fertility rates make the smallest contributions to global warming and bear the brunt of its effects.
The UNFPA discovered that the most widely held belief is that there are too many people on the planet.
However, it noted that two-thirds of people reside in nations with low fertility and thus reaching the eight billion mark “should be a reason to celebrate”.
“It is a milestone representing historic advances for humanity in medicine, science, health, agriculture, and education,” the study stated.
“It is time to put fear aside, to move away from population targets, and to focus on demographic resilience, the capacity to adjust to changes in fertility rates and population growth.”
The greatest fertility rates were all found in African nations: Niger (6.7), Chad (6.1), Democratic Republic of the Congo(6.1), Somalia (6.1), Mali (5.8), and Central African Republic (5.8).
Hong Kong (0.8), South Korea (0.9), Singapore (1.0), Macau and San Marino (1.1), Aruba and China (1.2), and Hong Kong (0.8) had the lowest birth rates.
“The world population is rapidly reorganizing itself,” UNFPA chief Kanem stated during a press briefing.
The population is currently the most it has ever been, yet “the global average fertility rate is the lowest in living memory”, she said.
“For the first time in human history, not every country is getting bigger.”
