India: The UN population estimates reveal that India has surpassed China as the world’s most populous nation, marking a significant change in global demographics that has never been witnessed before.

The UN has projected that India’s population has now reached 1,425,775,850, exceeding China’s population for the first time. This estimate is based on various factors such as census data, and birth as well as death rates, among others. For the first time since the United Nations began keeping global population records in 1950, China has lost its position as the world’s most populous country.

After implementing strict laws to control its booming birthrate, including the one-child policy in the 1980s which involved fines, forced abortions and sterilizations, China’s population has now declined. While these policies were initially effective in population control, they have resulted in the country facing the consequences of an ageing population, which is rapidly declining and could have severe economic repercussions.

The one-child policy in China exacerbated the issue of traditional male preference, leading to a significant gender imbalance where men outnumber women by approximately 32 million. As a result, the country now faces the challenge of increasing birth rates while coping with the absence of millions of women. Mei Fong, the author of the book One Child which examines the policy’s impact, asks the critical question of how this issue can be addressed.

Despite recent policies in China that aim to encourage women to have more children, the country’s population growth remains stagnant. Women still have an average of only 1.2 children, and experts predict that the population will decline by nearly 10 percentin the next 20 years. Projections suggest that China’s population could even fall below 1 billion before the end of the century.

Since 1950, India’s population has increased by over one billion people. While the growth rate has slowed down, the number of individuals in the country is projected to continue to rise for the next few decades, peaking at 1.7 billion by 2064. In comparison to China, India has a much higher rate of daily births, with an average of 86,000 babies born per day, compared to just 49,400 in China.

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