India is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation by the middle of this year, with almost 3 million more people, UN estimates showed yesterday.
India’s population would be 1.4286 billion compared with China’s 1.4257 billion at mid-year, the UN Population Fund’s State of World Population report showed.
China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed earlier this year.
Photo: Bloomberg
The report also estimated that the global population would hit 8.045 billion by the same date.
India has no recent official data on how many people it has, because it has not conducted a census since 2011.
India’s once-in-a-decade census was due to be held in 2021, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The census is now bogged down by logistical hurdles and political reluctance, making it unlikely the massive exercise would begin anytime soon.
Critics say the government is deliberately delaying the census to hide data on contentious issues, such as unemployment, ahead of national elections next year.
India’s population has grown by more than 1 billion people since 1950, when the UN began gathering population data, the Pew Research Center has said.
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