Now it’s predicted next year India will surpass China as having the world’s largest population according to figures from the united nations.
Both countries currently have more than 1.4 billion people. China’s slowing birth rate is expected to lead to a decline in its population according to a UN report. India is projected to have a population of 1.668 billion in 2050
Now it is way ahead of china’s population which is expected to reach 1.317 billion people by 2050. India had a very rapid acceleration of fertility all over the world in the past 50 years or so. What now we are seeing is fertility rates have declined in India. They are just above replacement levels. So, the replacement is 2.1. If every woman in the country has 2.1 children which are impossible of course. The population will keep replacing itself. India is just above that.
That is quite a relatively low fertility rate and it means that India keeps increasing but much more slowly than it did in the past. That means that India is close to this sweet spot where it could have a very healthy working-age population. A lower child and youth population and a lower older population. That is potentially very food for the economy.
That’s what we have seen in China over the last 20, 30 years and it’s really helped china accelerate its economy so fast. That’s the sweet spot that India will be trying to take advantage of.
China this year for the first time announced that its population was about to decline. That is something that the government there is very worried about. They are worried about the word that there won’t be enough workers to pay for pensions and to pay for the needs of children. China is trying to do a lot to boost its population but its’ really too late. They just abandoned their one-child policy in 2016.
India never had a one-child policy so it’s not the same position. So china will be doing all it can to try and convince people to have more babies but that is a very difficult thing to do there is no county in the world that really succeeds in doing that.
Source: BBC world
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