India is set to surpass China as the country with the world’s highest population by 2023, according to a study released by the Population Division of the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The study, which was released on World Population Day (July 11), also predicted that the global population will touch 8 billion on November 15, 2022.
Some of the most significant findings revealed that the two most populous regions in the world are Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion people (29% of the global population), and Central and Southern Asia with 2.1 billion (26%). China and India, which have populations of more than 1.4 billion each, account for more than half of the population of these regions combined.
| RANK | 1990 | 2022 | 2050 |
| 1 | China | China | India |
| 2 | India | India | China |
| 3 | USA | USA | USA |
| 4 | Indonesia | Indonesia | Nigeria |
| 5 | Brazil | Pakistan | Pakistan |
| 6 | Russian Federation | Nigeria | Indonesia |
| 7 | Japan | Brazil | Brazil |
| 8 | Pakistan | Bangladesh | Democratic Republic of Congo |
| 9 | Bangladesh | Russian Federation | Ethiopia |
| 10 | Nigeria | Mexico | Bangladesh |
However, the study also stated that China is expected to experience an “absolute decline in its population as early as 2023”. Hong Kong also figured in the study as one of the countries with the highest life expectancies, at about 85 years, along with Australia, Japan and Macau.
According to the study, in 2020 “the global growth rate fell under 1% per year for the first time since 1950”. It also predicted that the world’s population will “reach a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s” and will remain steady until 2100.
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