India Projected to Overtake China as the World’s Most Populous Country in 2023

India faces a deepening demographic divide as it prepares to overtake China as the world’s most populous country - with the north-south divide growing as its population changes, with serious social and political consequences.

Next year India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation. However this population growth is not equal across the country - the population is rising in the north, but in the richer south it is stabilising, and actually declining in some states. This leaves India with an interesting problem - an ageing population and an baby boom!

Key stats

India's current population = 1.39 billion (four times bigger than the US and 20 times bigger than the UK).

China's current population = 1.41 billion.

Babies born every day: India = 86,000; China = 49,400.

India is on course to take the lead in 2023 and hit 1.65 billion people by 2060.

India's resources are already under huge pressure - but this demographic change will affect the economy and society as a whole. The demand for water is set to increase further - not great when India already struggles with extreme weather events for at least 9 months of the year, made worse by climate change.

This article from the Guardian provides a superb update to your global population case studies and looks at some of the issues caused by this growth in depth.