India may have already become the most populous country in the world according to estimates from the World Population Review, an independent organization focused on census and demographics and also according to the United Nation's experts who had predicted India’s population would reach 1.412 billion, last year.

The UN predicted that India would overtake China, sometime in April, this year.

As of the end of 2022, India stands at 141.7 crore which is little over 50 lakh than the 141.2 crore as of January 17 declared by China. This is China's first decline since the 1960s, stated an official announcement.

As per WPR, India’s population increased to 142.3 crore people as of January 18. It further predicts that although India's population growth has slowed down, it will continue to rise until at least till 2050.

China's population, on the other hand, shrunk last year for the first time in six decades. It shrunk by 850,000 in 2022 compared to a year ago, as per data released by the National Statistics Bureau.

It has shrunk to the point that the country has ended its strict one-child policy that was introduced in 1980 and now since 2021, they are allowed to have three children yet there is a huge decline in the country's population.

So will it be a good thing if India becomes the world's most populous country?

India which is the second most populous country in the world is already lagging behind in terms of healthcare facilities, education, social problems, development failures and much more. It is still a developing nation, on the verge of development rather than a developed country hence there will be a lot of burden on many such sectors if India holds the first place in terms of population in the world.

A very recent example is the year of pandemic, Covid 19, where we have witnessed and come across many instances where there were hundreds of covid 19 patients but there was a lack of healthcare facilities, healthcare specialist which is why many people succumbed to death.

With an increasing population, India will also face problems like unemployment which is already an ongoing crisis for the youths of India. For India to benefit from a demographic dividend, the government needs to create more jobs for its working age population.

Then there will be an increasing number of slums which are already there due to migration from rural to urban areas in search of jobs, better living standards.

But with an increasing population, there comes a positive outcome as well.

India could get a permanent seat in the UN Security Council which currently has five permanent members, including China.

Apart from this, India who's half of the population is of the age below 30 years have many advantages.

Economist Shruti Rajagopalan is of the opinion that the young Indians will be the largest consumer and labour source in the knowledge and network goods.

Indians will be the largest pool of global talent," she says.

India is yet to release the updated census which it releases once-every-ten-year. It had to be postponed due to the pandemic in 2021.