The green territory of map being India and the orange being China shows the comparative territory occupied by both countries through map.
According to US Department of Economic and Social Welfare recently published research data that estimates and projects India has overtaken over China as the World's most populous country. India, China, United States of America, Russian Federation and Indonesia are the five most populous countries of world.
The latest estimation, India's population is expected to reach 1, 425, 775, 850 which is around and even surpassing the China's population which stands at 1.425 billion inhabitants. Upon that, China's population is expected to continue falling by 1 billion at the end of the century.
The most recent census of China was held in November, 2020 whereas, India's most recent census is of 2011 and further been planned for 2024 as it missed to conduct its census of 2021 due to pandemic.
In 2022, at 1.2 births per woman, China had one of the world’s lowest fertility rates; India’s fertility rate, at 2.0 births per woman, was just below the “replacement” threshold of 2.1, the level required for population stabilization in the long run. According to the United Nations’ latest projections, India’s population is expected to reach its peak size around 2064 and then to decline gradually.
China had and ''later, longer, fewer'' campaigns from 1970s to control and decline the population. It had applied stricter One-Child Policy from 1980 until 2015 limiting couples with only one or two child.
India also enacted policies to discourage the formation of large families and to slow population growth, including through its national family welfare programme beginning in the 1950s.
Both China and India are experiencing imbalances in the sex ratio at birth, with millions more boys than girls born since the 1980s.
The population growth in both India and China has been slowing down, but India's growth rate is still higher than China's. However, India's population growth rate has been declining, reaching its lowest level since 1960 at 0.61 percent in 2023. In contrast, China's population growth rate has been on the decline as well, experiencing a decline after reaching a peak of 1.426 billion inhabitants in 2022.
