India is on its way to becoming the world’s most populous country, overtaking China with almost 3 million more people in the middle of this year,
Demographic data released on Wednesday from the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) tagged “State of World Population Report, 2023” estimates India’s population at 1,428.6 million or 1.4286 billion against 1.4257 billion for China.
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The data, which reflects information available as of February 2023, showed the United States is a distant third, with an estimated population of 340 million.
Population experts using previous data from the UN have projected India would go past China this month, but the latest report from the global body did not specify a date for when the change would take place.
UN population officials have said it was not possible to specify a date due to “uncertainty” about the data coming out of India and China, especially since India’s last census was conducted in 2011 and the next one due in 2021 has been delayed due to the pandemic.
Editor: Oloyede Oworu
