In terms of population, India has surpassed China, according to UN statistics made public on Wednesday. The United Nation’s World Population 2023 dashboard stated that India’s population has topped 1.428 million, almost edging over China’s 1,425 million citizens, with difference of 2.9 million only.
According to the new UNFPA statistics, 25 percent of Indians are under the age of 14, 18 percent are between the ages of 10 and 19, 26 percent are between the ages of 10 and 24, 68 percent are between the ages of 15 and 64, and 7 percent are above 65.
Different agencies across the world have anticipated that India’s population is expected to keep rising for nearly three decades before it peaks at 165 crores, and then it would start declining.
Although the UN’s most recent report did not include a date, population analysts who used earlier statistics from the organization predicted India will exceed China this month.
UN population authorities have stated that it is not feasible to identify a date due to the ambiguity surrounding the data from China and India. China’s last census was conducted in 2011, and the next, scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the COVID-19 epidemic in India.
Notably, this is the first time India has topped the United Nations’ list of most populated countries, ever since the organisation started collecting the data in 1950. However, Census in India has not taken place since 2011, hence there are no fresh statistics available on the population size of the country. According to the laws, the census takes place once a decade but due to the Coronavirus outbreak it was postponed and could not take place in 2021. And there has been no indication when the vast and complicated effort to count the population will be made.
According to statistics, China’s population started to decline in 1960. Beijing also removed its rigorous “one-child policy” in 2016, which had been put in place in 1980 due to concerns about population growth, and permitted couples to have three children by 2021. As its population ages and its fertility rate declines, China will soon see a demographic fall.
Meanwhile, the United States is in third place with an estimated population of 340 million. And, according to the United Nations, the worldwide population is expected to reach 8.045 billion by mid-2023.
The demographics of India’s population differ from state to state. According to analysts, the populations of Kerala, Punjab, and Bihar are getting older while those of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are younger.
According to the UNFPA, many Indians are now concerned about the changing population, with 63 percent of those questioned citing different economic difficulties as their primary worry. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) stated in its State of the World Population Report (SWOP) 2023 that the rising population should not, however, cause worry or concern.
‘India’s 1.4 billion people must be considered as 1.4 billion chances,’ said Andrea Wojnar, the UNFPA representative for India and the country director for Bhutan. “As long as individual rights and preferences are respected, they should be viewed as a sign of advancement, growth, and ambitions,” she added.
The UN official stressed on promoting gender equality, women’s empowerment and the advancement of greater bodily autonomy for girls and women are the primary factors influencing a sustainable future. Everyone should be free to choose whether to have children, if any, and how many, adding that individual rights and choices should be honoured.
In January, India’s population surpassed the 140-crore milestone, and it is shortly anticipated to overtake China. According to the yearly study, Indian respondents said that their nation’s population was “too large” and its fertility rates were “too high”. According to a report, it said that there was “no apparent difference” in the opinions of men and women in India regarding the country’s reproduction rates. A representative sample of 1,007 people in India was questioned as part of the SWOP 2023 to get their opinions on population-related issues.
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