Rabat - While researchers have long predicted that India’s population will eventually surpass that of China’s, a recent report from the UN expects this to happen as soon as 2022; six years earlier than previous predictions indicated.
The population division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs said China’s population was 1.38 billion, compared with 1.31 billion in India. But in just seven years, the populations of both are expected to reach 1.4 billion.
According to the report, India’s population will continue to grow for decades, to 1.5 billion in 2030 and 1.7 billion in 2050, while China’s is expected to remain fairly steady until the 2030s, when it is expected to slightly decrease.
China and India remain the two most populated countries in the world, each with more than one billion people, representing 19 and 18 per cent of the world’s population.
The total global population, currently at 7.3 billion, is predicted to hit 9.7 billion by 2050, according to the report.
Much of that growth is expected to occur in high-fertility nations, mostly throughout Africa, or in countries with large populations.
The report reveals that during the 2015-2050 period, half of the world’s population growth is expected to be concentrated in just nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the United States, Indonesia and Uganda.
On the other hand, the populations of 48 countries are expected to decline during that period, mainly in Europe, due to a preexisting decrease in fertility rates. The report said several countries faced a population decline of more than 15 percent by 2050, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.
The report also indicates a rise in global life expectancy at birth, from 67 years between 2000-2005 to 70 years in 2010-2015. That trend is expected to continue, reaching 77 years in 2045-2050 and then 83 years in 2095-2100.
Photograph: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters
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