According to the UN, India now has a population 1,425,775,850, knocking China from the first spot for the first time since 1950, when the UN first started making population estimates.

The population is projected by using factors such as census data and birth and death rates.

China’s population has fallen due to the now-axed one-child policy that was introduced in the 1980s.

India’s population has boomed by more than 1 billion since 1950, and the country has, on average 86,000 babies born a day. It is expected India’s population will peak at 1.7 billion in 2064.

Meanwhile, China’s birth rate has fallen to 49,400 a day, and it is forecast the country’s population could fall below 1 billion by the end of the century.

Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the Population Foundation of India, said India was no longer facing the expected population “explosion” that many had feared, with experts concerned at the nation becoming the world’s most populous.

“Earlier projections said we would overtake China in 2027, so it’s happened four years faster, mostly because of our young population,” said Muttreja.

“But at the same time, we have also reduced our population growth and reached population stabilisation faster than we had imagined, and it will continue to slow down as long as we stay on the right track. So I don’t think there’s any need for alarm.”

India’s exact population is unknown as the census, conducted once a decade, was delayed due to Covid in 2021.