With 8 billion people in the world, India and China account for more than a third of all of them. The first estimates its population at 1.380 million and according to UN projections, it is on track to become the most populous country in the world by 2023. We at Magnet have discussed how India’s population growth is driven by various factors such as declining death rates, increasing life expectancy and high birth rates.
The Indians now represent 17.76% of the world population. One in three people in the world belongs to India or China. And experts predict that by 2023 India will overtake China in population. According to data from the World Bank, in 2021 China had 1,412 million people and its neighbor, with a much smaller area, 1,393 million. But India is expected to overtake it in 2023.
That the country that accumulates the most births is India does not surprise us. In this other article we commented that of the next 1,000 babies born in the world, 172 of them will be born there.
To get an idea of the enormous population that the country has, it is enough to say that if all the states of India became countries today, they would occupy half of the ranking of the 20 most populous countries in the world. The following chart by Visual Capitalist illustrates those numbers: it compares India’s 28 states and 8 territories with other countries around the world.
You can consult the map in its highest resolution here.
As can be seen, the gap between the largest and smallest states in India is quite large. Uttar Pradesh, for example, is the most populous country subdivision in the world with 232 million people, while Sikkim, in the northeast of the country, is the least populated state in India (0.7 million). Even so, they are figures that take away the hiccups.
And it’s amazing how several Indian states evenly equate with some countries we consider to be very large: Maharashtra (Japan), West Bengal (Egypt), Andhra Pradesh (DRC) and Tamil Nadu (Germany). The largest, Uttar Pradesh (Brazil+Chile), is on a par with neighboring Pakistan. And the population of countries like Canada or Australia is pretty laughable compared to the smaller Indian states.
A slowing population
Even with that data, India, which has always been a major driver of the number of people on the planet, is experiencing a drastic slowdown. India’s annual population growth has been 1.2% on average since 2011, compared with 1.7% in the previous 10 years, according to the government.
and you can wait further slowdown in the future. India’s Total Fertility Rate fell to 2 last year, down from 3.4 in 1992. This indicator is the average number of children a woman would have in her lifetime. A rate higher than 2.1 leads to an expanding population, while a lower one means a declining population.
Why is this phenomenon occurring? The increased use of contraceptives, urbanization and increased education among girls could have contributed to the decline in fertility rates. An increase in wealth in the world is correlated with fewer births, the exodus from the rural world to the cities, and government policies that discourage it (such as limiting the number of children).
In fact, falling fertility rates in the country are forcing Indian states to consider reviewing policies that encourage families not to go beyond having two children. You have to balance the scale.
Map: Visual Capitalist