India to become world's most populous country overtaking China by 2028: UN report

India's population is estimated to overtake that of China from 2028 and continue to grow till 2050.

United Nations have estimated that by 2028 both the countries will have a population of 1.45 billion each and as China's population will decline India's will continue to grow till 2050, reports BBC.

According to the report, the current global population is that of 7.2 billion which is expected to reach 9.6 billion with a faster growth rate primarily in the developing countries and particularly in Africa.

UN said that the population of developed regions will remain unchanged and pointed to the growing fertility levels as the reason for high population in developing countries.

According to the report, larger developing nations like China, India and Brazil have seen a downfall in the number of children per woman but in countries like Nigeria, Niger, Ethiopia and Uganda the fertility levels remain high.

By far the population to increase the largest is in Nigeria, which is expected to increase by 730 million people, from 184 million now to 914 million in 2100 exceeding US.

UN's Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Wu Hongbo said that although population growth has slowed down for the world as a whole, developing countries especially Africa are still on population rise, the report added.