A new UN report released here Wednesday predicted that India is set to overtake China as the world's largest country in less than 10 years.
China and India remain the two most populous countries in the world with 19 percent of the globe's population living in China and 18 percent in India, said the report, known as "World Population Prospects: The 2015 Review."
"In 2015, the world has around 7.3 billion inhabitants. We have added one billion people since 2003 and two billion since 1990," John Wilmoth, director of the Population Division in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said at a press conference to launch the report.
The world population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, the report said.
However, Wilmoth highlighted that population aging, rather than population growth, was becoming an increasing trend and was even a cause of concern for some countries.
"For many countries today, and probably for most countries in the long run, the major concern about their demographic situation will be in relation to population aging, not growth," Wilmoth said.
The highest growth rates are in Africa, despite fertility rates having fallen there in recent times. High birth rates mean that 41 percent of Africans are aged under 15 and Africa's population is expected to roughly double in size between now and 2050, said Wilmoth.
Life expectancy in Africa has increased by 6 years since the year 2000, more than the global average of 3 years.
Another aspect of population changes is immigration with most migrants moving from low- or middle-income regions -- with higher fertility -- to high-income countries.
"Over the past 15 years, we estimate that there has been an average annual net flow of 4.1 million migrants moving from low- or middle-income countries to high income countries," Wilmoth said.
"Understanding the demographic change that are likely to unfold over the coming years, as well as the challenges and opportunities that they present for achieving sustainable development, is key to the design and implementation of the new development agenda," said Wu Hongbo, the UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs.
Currently, among the 10 largest countries in the world, one is in Africa (Nigeria), five in Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan), two are in Latin America (Brazil and Mexico), one is in Northern America (USA), and one is in Europe ( Russia), the report added.
