India has 142.8 million people, which is 1.56 percent more than it had a year ago, according to a UN population study.

India’s population has grown by 1.56 percent in the past year and is now thought to be 1,428,600,000,000 (142.86 crores). More than two-thirds of India’s population, or 68%, are between the ages of 15 and 64, which is considered the working population of a country, according to the latest edition of the UNFPA’s State of World Population (SOWP) report.

The report, called “8 Billion Lives, Infinite Possibilities: The Case for Rights and Choices,” came out on Wednesday. It says that China has 1,425.7 million people, or 142.57 crore, which is just behind India. It was thought to be worth 1,448.5 million or 144.85 crore in 2022.

Analysts believe that India’s population has already surpassed China’s.

In the 2022 version of the study, India had a population of 1,406.6 million people, with 68% of them between the ages of 15 and 64.

The number of births per woman of childbearing age in India is also reported to be 2.0 in the most recent report. The study, which has been made every year since 1978, says that the average life expectancy of an Indian man is 71, and that of an Indian woman is 74.

“As the world reaches 8 billion people, we at UNFPA see India’s 1.4 billion people as 1.4 billion opportunities,” said Andrea Wojnar, Representative, UNFPA India and Country Director, Bhutan, in the report.

“The story of India is a powerful one. It is a story of how schooling, public health and sanitation, economic growth, and technological progress have changed over time. As the country with the youngest people (15–24 years old), its 254 million young people can help come up with new ideas and long-lasting answers. “The situation can change quickly if women and girls, in particular, have equal access to education and skill-building opportunities, technology and digital innovations, and, most importantly, the knowledge and power to exercise their reproductive rights and choices fully,” she said.

The report also says that 44% of partnered women and girls in 68 countries don’t have the right to make informed choices about their bodies when it comes to having sex, using birth control, and getting health care. It says that about 257 million women around the world don’t have access to safe, trustworthy birth control.

Earlier, Dr Natalia Kanem, the Executive Director of the UNFPA, told a virtual media meeting that the wrong questions are being asked: “Are there too many people in the world? Are there not enough people on Earth? Is the rate of growth of the people too fast or too slow?”

She thinks that the question that needs to be asked is not just how fast people have children but also whether all people and couples are able to use their basic human rights to decide how many children, if any, they want. Kanem said, “No,” in response to that question.

The study shows that many people are worried about population growth, and more and more governments are making policies to raise, lower, or keep fertility rates the same. “But changing the number of births is often useless and can hurt women’s rights. “Population goals shouldn’t control women’s bodies,” Kanem said.

“We need to completely change how we talk about and plan for population change if we want to build societies that work well and include everyone, no matter how big the population is,” she said. The study says that the way population numbers are talked about needs to be completely changed. It also tells politicians and the media to stop telling overblown stories about population booms and busts.

“Instead of asking how fast people have children, leaders should ask if people, especially women, are free to choose how many children they want to have,” Kanem said. “Too often, the answer to that question is no.”

She said that family planning shouldn’t be used to reach fertility goals or give people more power. She also said that experts and officials shouldn’t be able to force women to have children. Instead, women should be free to decide if, when, and how many children they want.

Key Facts about India

As part of the report, UNFPA asked YouGov to do a public poll that asked a representative sample of 7,797 people from eight countries—India, Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, Japan, Nigeria, and the United States—their thoughts on population problems. These people came from India, Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, Japan, Nigeria, and the United States.

For India, there were 1,007 people in the sample, and the poll was done online. The analysis has been weighted and is based on a sample of people in India who live in cities and are 18 or older.

• When asked what population-related problems were most important, 63% of Indians said that economic issues were the most important. It was followed by worries about the environment (46%), sexual and reproductive health and rights, and human rights (30%).
• People in India who took the survey thought that their country had too many people and too many babies. There wasn’t a big gap between what men and women in India thought about the country’s birth rates.
• The results of the Indian survey also show that worries about the population have spread to a big part of the general public.
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