India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by mid-year, with a projected population of 1.4286 billion compared to China’s 1.4257 billion, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s State of World Population report. China’s population shrank last year for the first time since 1960. Many have attributed the decline to the country’s strict “one-child policy,” which ended in 2016, and to the growing number of women entering the workforce and seeking higher education. The decline has also been attributed to the country’s soaring cost of living. China now faces a demographic decline as birth rates plunge and its workforce ages. India has not conducted a census since 2011, and the 2021 census was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics accuse the government of deliberately delaying the census to hide data on contentious issues such as unemployment ahead of national elections next year. The Indian economy, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is struggling to provide jobs for the millions of young people entering the job market every year. India’s population has grown by over one billion people since 1950, according to the Pew Research Centre.
