By the end of April, India will have 1,425,775,850 people, “matching and then surpassing the population of mainland China.” The population count does not include the islands of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the United Nations agency said.
On April 19, a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated that the Indian population would be 1,428.6 million inhabitants at the end of the year against China’s 1,425.7 million.
“China’s population peaked at 1.426 million in 2022 and began to decline. Projections indicate that the size of the Chinese population could fall below 1 billion by the end of the century while the Indian population will continue to grow for several decades,” according to the department, headed by Chinese Li Junhua.
Greater influence in Asia and geopolitics
New Delhi and Beijing compete for influence in Asia and on the international stage, and status as the “world’s most populous” country could bolster India as a rising power, courted by the West to counter China’s influence.
That demographic dominance could serve as an argument for New Delhi to win a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, something India has long wanted.
India has more inhabitants than the four permanent members of the Security Council together (the United States, Russia, France and the United Kingdom) that make up the organization along with China.
