New Delhi: India is likely to surpass China by mid year in terms of population with at least 3 million more people, a report by U.N. on April 19 estimated.

The United Nations Population Fund’s State of World Population report predicted that India’s population will be 1.4286 billion as compared to China’s 1.4257 billion.

For the first time in six decades, China’s population declined last year, showed official data ealier.

The UN report also estimated that with the increase in population of India, World population will hit 8.045 billion by the same date.

Meanwhile, there is no data on rise of India’s population as the nation has not conducted a census since 2011. The Indian authorities was supposed to conduct its once-in-a-decade census in 2021 but it was postponed, owing to the spread of Coronavirus.

Home Minister Amit Shah said the census will be conducted by 2024 in digital form, delaying for 3 whole years.

Intends to hide data

Political critics predicted that there would not be the exercise anytime soon considering the nation’s big and crucial elections scheduled next year. They suggested that the government is deliberately delaying the census so it can hide data on the issues like unemployment.

As per the Pew Research Centre, there is a growth by more than one billion people in India’s population since 1950.