India population to surpass China’s mid-year: UN

NEW DELHI: India is set to overtake China as the world´s most populous country by the end of June, UN estimates showed on Wednesday, posing huge challenges to a nation with creaking infrastructure and insufficient jobs for millions of young people.

The seismic shift will see India´s population hit 1.4286 billion -- almost three million more than China´s 1.4257 billion -- at mid-year, the United Nations Population Fund´s State of World Population report forecast.

China has generally been regarded as the world´s most populous country since the fall of the Roman Empire but last year its population shrank for the first time since 1960, while India´s has continued to rise.

The South Asian giant spreads from the Himalayas to the beaches of Kerala, with 22 official languages, and nearly half its inhabitants are under 25. The country faces huge challenges providing electricity, food and housing for its growing population, with many of its massive cities already struggling with water shortages, air and water pollution, and packed slums.

According to the Pew Research Centre, the number of people in India has grown by more than one billion since 1950, the year the UN began gathering population data. China ended its strict “one-child policy”, imposed in the 1980s amid overpopulation fears, in 2016 and started letting couples have three children in 2021.

Many blame its falling birth rates on the soaring cost of living, as well as the growing number of women going into the workforce and seeking higher education. China said on Wednesday that it “implements a national strategy to actively respond to population ageing, promotes the three-child birth policy and supporting measures, and actively responds to changes in population development”.

“China´s demographic dividend has not disappeared, the talent dividend is taking shape, and development momentum remains strong,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.