With its 1.428 billion inhabitants, India has overtaken China as the world's most populous country, according to a UN report released on Wednesday. Bloomberg reports.
China is home to 1.425 billion people, about 3 million fewer than the population of India.
One fifth of the world's population
On Earth lives a total of about 8 billion. This means that the population of India makes up about one fifth of the entire world's population. Every third person on earth comes from either China or India.
The world's third most populous country is the United States, with about 332 million people. Both India and China are separate homes to more people than Europe, Africa or America.
Growing slowly
Although the world's population is increasing, it is growing at the slowest rate since the 1950s, and in several countries the population is declining. Among them, China, where the population declined by 850,000 in 2022, according to CNN.
The world's population is growing fastest in Africa. Half of the world's population growth between now and 2050 is expected to be concentrated there, according to the UN.
Factors of population growth
Birth rates, life expectancy and migration are factors that influence population growth and the rate at which it occurs.
The average age of the population is rising in both China and India, with an average age of 78 in China and 70 in India, respectively.
Life expectancy is increasing globally, while birth rates are falling. Even in China and India, the birth rate is falling, with an average of 1.2 children in China and 2 in India, writes Al Jazeera.