Opinion: Why India’s Population Could Surpass China’s in Next Three Years

Earlier this week, many Chinese citizen journalists shared an article with headlines such as this: “Historic moment! India’s population surpassed China to become the world’s largest!” The story captured eyeballs by playing on the theme of competition between these two countries.

Behind the headlines were numbers showing that India’s population reached 1.416 billion in March, officially surpassing China's 2021 population of 1.413 billion people. But these news items did not provide a reliable source for India’s population data.