India beats China to become the most populous nation: UN

New Delhi: India has overtaken China as the most populous nation in the middle of this year, a UN report released on Wednesday says.

According to UN estimates, India's population is 142.86 crore against China's 142.57 crore.

United Nations Population Fund’s demographic data ‘ State of World Population Report, 2023’ puts India’s population at 1.4286 billion with China’s hovering at 1.4257 billion.

With 340 million, the United States stands far away in the list. Population experts earlier predicted that India would rage past China in population this month.

However, owing to uncertainty on the data from both India and China UN body was so far not able to give the exact date on which India will overtake china, Reuters reported.

This is particularly owing to the fact that India carried out its last census in 2011 and the next, due in 2021, is delayed by pandemic, according to the report.

Nevertheless being home to more than one-third of global population, both Asian countries record a slowing in population growth, with China being the slowest.

China’s population last year recorded a fall first time in six decades, signaling at an upcoming long period of decline that will have a huge economic implications on the nation.

Meanwhile India recorded an average population growth at 1.2 percent since 2011 against 1.7 percent a decade ago.