The impact of changing demographics

The latest United Nations projection for world population reflects the significant demographic changes likely to occur in different parts of the world over the next few decades. The changes have strong economic implications, and many of them have already begun taking place.

One of the major projections is India's emergence as the world's most populous country in another fifteen years. India's population is expected to equal China's by 2028 and subsequently overtake it.

But while in 2028 both countries are expected to have a population of 1.45 billion each, India's population is projected to reach 1.5 billion in 2100 compared with China's 1.1 billion. The difference in the projection for the two countries' populations at the end of the century is because of the difference in the nature of their growth. India's population will continue to grow at a positive rate for several decades before declining in the later part of this century. But the rate of growth in China's population will become negative after 2030 and its population will start declining much before India's.