UN: India to ‘Surpass China as the Most Populous Country During 2023’

Indian nurses care for newly born babies at the maternity ward of a hospital on the eve of World Population Day, in Guwahati on July 10, 2014. World Population Day, which was established by the United Nations Development Programme in 1989 and is observed annually, seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images

The United Nations released the “World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results” (WPP) on July 11 (pdf), which is World Population Day.

The report says: “India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country during 2023,” and “The world’s population is projected to reach 8 billion on Nov. 15, 2022.”

Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to continue growing through 2100 and to contribute more than half of the global population increase anticipated through 2050.

In 2021, 13.3 million babies, or about 10 percent of the total worldwide, were born to mothers under 20 years old, said the report.

Because of the female advantage in life expectancy, women outnumber men at older ages in almost all populations. Globally, women comprised 55.7 percent of persons aged 65 or older in 2022, said the report.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant demographic consequences, as indicated by Director, UN DEA, Population Division John Wilmoth.

The pandemic affected all components of population change, including fertility, mortality, and migration, said the report.

Researchers are starting to better understand the consequences of wearing masks and how normal childhood development has been undermined amid the pandemic. L Julia/Shutterstock

Global life expectancy at birth fell to 71.0 years in 2021, down from 72.8 in 2019, due mostly to the impact of the pandemic.

According to Wilmoth, since 1990, the UN has observed World Population Day on July 11, to “focus the attention on the urgency and and importance of population issues.”

The report was released by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. According to the departmental statement, the report, dataset, and other outputs of the WPP are widely used by Member States, the United Nations system, academia, the private sector and civil society.

“The WPP helps to promote demographic foresight and is an important tool for long-term and intergenerational thinking,” said the statement.