UN: India to have 2.9 million more people than China by mid-2023

India is on its way to becoming the world’s most populous country, overtaking China with almost 3 million more people in the middle of this year, data released on Wednesday by the United Nations showed.

Estimates of the State of World Population Report 2023 issued by the United Nations Population Fund indicate that the population of India will reach 1.4286 billion, compared to 1.4257 billion for China.

The data showed that the United States comes in third place, with an estimated population of 340 million people.

Demographics experts, based on previous data from the United Nations, predicted that India would overtake China this month. However, the latest report did not specify a date for that.

Although India and China will account for more than a third of the world's estimated population of 8.045 billion, the population growth of the two Asian giants is slowing, much faster in China than in India,

India's annual population growth has averaged 1.2% since 2011, compared to 1.7% in the previous decade, according to government data.