India to overtake China to become most populous nation by 2027, says United Nations

India will beat China to become most populous country by 2027, a United Nations report said on Tuesday. “India, along with eight other countries, will make up over half of the estimated population growth between now and 2050,” the UN report said. In the detailed report titled ‘The World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights’, by 2050, there will be around 9.7 billion people living on Earth. By the end of the century, the planet will have to sustain around 11 billion, the report said.

Apart from India, other eight nations that are expected to show the biggest increase are Nigeria and Pakistan, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt and the United States of America. But the report also had a contradictory observation. Despite the boom, the population size of more and more countries is actually falling, the Un report said. Since 2010, 27 countries or areas have seen a drop of at least one per cent, because of persistently low fertility rates, the report added.

Overall, it states, the world’s population is ageing, with the age group of 65 and above growing at such a fast rate that by 2050, one in six people in the world will be part of it as compared to one in 11 in 2019.

“The World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights”, is published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and provides a comprehensive overview of global demographic patterns and prospects. The report is based on population estimates from 1950 to the present for 235 countries or areas, underpinned by analyses of historical demographic trends. The 2019 revision also includes population projections to the year 2100, that reflect a range of plausible outcomes at the global, regional and country levels.