NEW DELHI: India’s population for 2025 is estimated at 1.46 billion, says a new UN report, which also flagged a declining total fertility rate (TFR) in the world’s most populous country. The population is expected to grow to about 1.7 billion before it begins to fall, around 40 years from now, said the UN Population Fund’s (UNFPA) 2025 State of World Population Report released Tuesday. China’s population is estimated to touch 1.41 billion this year.
India’s population was 1.44 billion last year, according to World Population Prospects-2024, also a UN report, released in July last year. The UNFPA report showed India’s TFR has declined to 1.9, which is below the replacement level fertility of 2.1 births per woman, indicating women are having fewer children than needed to maintain the population size from one generation to the next.
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It noted that while India has made significant progress in lowering fertility rate, deep inequalities persist across states, castes and incomes. In Delhi, Kerala, TN, educated middle-class put off childbirth Even as India’s fertility rate is declining, many people in India, especially women, still face significant barriers to making free and informed decisions about their reproductive lives, says the UN Population Fund’s State of World Population Report released Tuesday.
These barriers create what the report identified as India’s “high fertility and low fertility duality”. The fertility rate has come down from nearly five children per woman in 1970 to about two, courtesy improved education and access to
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