India becomes most populous country in the world. According tot he United Nations data, India has surpassed China to become world’s most populous nation with 142.86 crore people. China has a population of 142.57 crore, according to the UN world population dashboard.
Last year, the number of people in China shrank for the first time since 1960. Beijing ended its strict “one-child policy”, imposed in the 1980s amid overpopulation fears, in 2016 and started letting couples have three children in 2021.
China faces a looming demographic decline as birth rates plunge and its workforce ages.
Global population:
According to the UN data, the global population will have hit 8.045 billion by mid-2023.
In Africa also, the trend of the rising population can be seen. It is estimated that the world’s second-largest continent will witness a spike in its population from 1.4 to 3.9 billion inhabitants by 2100.
Eight nations with more than 10 million inhabitants, most of them in Europe, saw their populations shrink over the past decade.
Japan is also seeing a decline due to its ageing population, losing more than three million inhabitants between 2011 and 2021.
The population of the entire planet, meanwhile, is only expected to decline in the 2090s, after peaking at 10.4 billion, the UN has projected.
Factors Influencing the population growth:
Fertility rate:
According to the United Nations, future population growth is highly dependent on the path that future fertility will take.
The World Population Prospects (2022) said that global fertility is projected to fall from 2.3 children per woman in 2021 to 2.1 in 2050.
Increasing longevity:
Overall, significant gains in life expectancy have been achieved in recent years. Globally, life expectancy at birth is expected to rise from 72.8 years in 2019 to 77.2 years in 2050.
International migration:
International migration is a much smaller component of population change than births or deaths. However, in some countries and areas, the impact of migration on population size is significant.
Between 2010 and 2021, seventeen countries or areas will see a net inflow of more than one million migrants, while ten countries will see a net outflow of a similar magnitude.
