Guwahati, Jan 18: A day after China reported that its population shrank in 2022 for the first time in more than 60 years, several reports while citing estimates from the World Population Review stated that India may have already surpassed China as the world’s most-populous nation.
As per reports, deaths outnumbered births in China as its overall population plummeted by 850,000 people – to 1.4118 billion in 2022, down from 1.4126 billion a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.
Despite reversing China's one child policy and other restrictions, some of the major causes that has been responsible for the population decline include financial and social burdens of child rearing, shifting ideologies on family and marriages and economic growth amid China’s draconian coronavirus policies. Reports stated that the population decline could have a profound impact on the economy and China’s economic growth fell to its second-lowest in five decades, registering a paltry three per cent increase in 2022.
The population decline is further adding pressure on leaders to keep the economy growing despite an aging workforce and at a time of rising tension with the U.S.
At 1.4 billion, the country has long been the world’s most populous nation, but is expected to soon be overtaken by India, if it has not already.
Meanwhile, as per World Population Prospects 2022 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division projections the development possibly makes India the world's most populous nation in 2023. According to the report, India is projected to have a population of 1.668 billion in 2050, more than China’s 1.317 billion by the middle of this century.
