India will soon overtake China to become the most populous country in the world

China has been the world’s most populous country for a long time: back in 1750, it had a population of 225 million, around 28% of the world population.1 By 2016, China had a population larger than 1.4 billion. The projections – made by the UN’s Population Division – suggest that by 2024, India will surpass China to become the world’s most populous country. In the map below we see country populations across the world through to the year 2100.

Source: ourworldindata.org