India’s population will be 1.4286 billion by the end of June, will overtake China by 2100

India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country with almost 3 million more people by the middle of this year, according to UN figures.

The State of World Population 2023 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates India’s population will be 1.4286 billion by the end of June, compared with China’s 1.4257 billion.

WORLD POPULATION: 8 BILLION PEOPLE pic.twitter.com/gx7VDo937L
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) June 8, 2023

The US is a distant third, with an estimated population of 340 million people by the end of June. The data in the report is based on information available up to February.

India’s population is set to rise to 1.09 billion people by 2100.

Although the two countries combined will account for more than a third of the estimated 8.045 billion people in the world, population growth in both has been slowing, albeit much faster in China than in India.

The latest @UNDESA's "Population and Vital Statistics Report" presents the most recent data on population size from the latest available census within the past 15 years.
The report is available in the @UN Digital Library; access it here: https://t.co/NR3bzNAAxZ #UNDL, @UNStats pic.twitter.com/n3j44ccdBf
— UN Library (@UNLibrary) June 5, 2023

Last year, China’s population shrank for the first time in six decades. The decrease is expected to mark the beginning of a long period of population decline in China, with profound implications for its economy and the world.

World population growth (annual, total) 1750-2100 pic.twitter.com/F4lyXFn3iY
— Rafal Wos (@RafalWos) June 6, 2023

India’s annual population growth has averaged 1.2% since 2011, down from 1.7% in the previous decade, government data shows.

A public survey by UNFPA found the most commonly held opinion in India, as well as in Brazil, Egypt, and Nigeria, was that the population in each country “was too large and fertility rates were too high”, the report said.

World’s population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century https://t.co/Zl6csvMCMq
— gamont.consultancy (@gamontqm) June 8, 2023

India has done many things right in tackling population growth, said Poonam Muttreja, the executive director at the Population Foundation of India, a non-profit organisation. “At the same time, we need to make sure that girls and women are not pushed into early marriages and pregnancies, which limit their aspirations,” she added.