The United Nations estimates India will pass China to have the world’s largest population sometime later this year. This comes from the U.N. Population Fund’s State of the World Population report. Both countries have over 1.4 billion people. But India will have about 3 million more people than China sometime around the middle of 2023. The last time India counted its population through a census was 2011. It is not possible to say exactly when India will overtake China. Together, the countries combine for about one third of the world’s population. China has been the world’s largest country since at least 1950. That is the first year the U.N. issued population numbers. India’s population is four times larger than it was when the country gained independence 76 years ago.