India to be world's most populous country by 2028: UN
UN, 15 June 2013: India looks set to overtake China as the world's most populous country
from 2028, according to the United Nations.
At that point, both nations will
number 1.45 billion people each. Subsequently India's population will continue to
grow until the middle of the century, while China's slowly declines.
The UN
also estimates that the current global population of 7.2 billion will reach 9.6 billion
by 2050. That is a faster rate of growth than previously estimated. The population
growth will be mainly in developing countries, particularly in Africa, the UN says.
The
world's 49 least developed countries are projected to double in size from around 900
million people in 2013 to 1.8 billion in 2050, whereas the population of developed
regions will remain largely unchanged.
The UN said the reason for the increase
in its projection is largely new information on fertility levels in certain high birth
rate countries.
Large developing countries, such as China, India and Brazil,
have seen a rapid fall in the average number of children per woman, but in other nations,
such as Nigeria, Niger, Ethiopia and Uganda, fertility levels remain high. Nigeria's
population is expected to exceed that of the US by the middle of the century, and
could start to rival China's by 2100.
China's population is expected to start
decreasing after 2030. "Although population growth has slowed for the world as a whole,
this report reminds us that some developing countries, especially in Africa, are still
growing rapidly," commented Wu Hongbo, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Economic
and Social Affairs.
The United Nations publishes an assessment of past, current
and future population trends every two years, in a recurrent series known as the World
Population Prospects. Researchers have used data for 233 countries and areas to
produce Friday's report. Source: BBC