Picture shows people on the busy streets of New Delhi's Shahjahanabad, the walled old city part of India's capital
ANKARA – Global population is expected to reach 8 billion on Nov. 15 this year, while India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to a UN report on Monday.
"The latest projections by the United Nations suggest that the global population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100," said the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) in its latest report released on World Population Day.
World Population Day, which seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, was established by the then-Governing Council of the UN Development Program in 1989, according to the UN.
Declining levels of mortality are among the reasons behind population growth, noted the report, adding globally, life expectancy reached 72.8 years in 2019, an increase of almost nine years since 1990.
"India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023," the UN report said, adding the world’s two most populous regions in 2022 were Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, with 2.3 billion people.
'Focus should be on people'
UN Population Fund said that global challenges or concerns, including the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, either increased or remain the same.
"The world reached a particularly grim milestone in May," it said, referring to data that more than 100 million have been forcibly displaced worldwide.
UN Population Fund said that the focus should be on people. “Instead of making the numbers work for systems, make the systems work for the numbers by promoting the health and well-being of people,” it added.
In a message, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said that the focus should be on “every person.”
"[Let's focus] on protecting human rights & the ability of all individuals to make informed choices about whether & when to have children," Guterres said on Twitter.
In 2022, China remains the most populous country in the world with 1.426 billion, but India has caught up with a marginally less population of 1.412 billion, according to The Indian Express report. (Anadolu)
