The latest United Nations population estimates indicate that India overtook China as the world’s most populous country in April 2023. And they state that India’s population will reach 1.429 billion in July 2023, surpassing China, the long-time leader, by 3 “small” million inhabitants.
In recent years, China’s population growth has notably slowed due to its one-child policy – implemented from 1979 to 2015 – before reaching an inflection point in 2022, when China’s population shrank. for the first time since 1961 (the date on which a ” great famine had decimated the country).

As for India, it still had a birth rate slightly above 2 children per woman in 2020 and its population should continue to grow until the 2060s. This status as the leading demographic power puts the country in front of a series of new challenges. , both at the national level (access to healthcare, education, employment) and that of its place on the international geopolitical scene.
Elsewhere in the world, Africa is bound to play a central role in world demography. Indeed, of the ten countries which should be the most populated at the end of the century, five will be African, first and foremost Nigeria (3rd in the world), whose population should exceed 540 million inhabitants in 2100, followed by Democratic Republic of Congo (5th), with a forecast of more than 430 million inhabitants.
On a planetary scale and according to the various current demographic scenarios, the world population should peak and stabilize between 2065 and 2080, before gradually decreasing.
This article is produced by Statista and hosted by 20 Minutes.