India’s population growth rate is overestimated: study

India’s population growth rate is overestimated: study

News:

1. By 2050, India is expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country.

Important facts:

2. According to the scientists, India’s population growth rate is highly overestimated by existing models.

3. According to the scientists, Accounting for the diversity and differences in the levels of education among people can help arrives at more accurate projections.

4. Accurate population projections could help India and its workforce catch up with more developed Asian countries with higher GDP per capita.

5. Reasons for rising population:

• Higher fertility rate and young population.

6. The researchers designed a study that pioneered a five-dimensional model of India’s population differences that include rural or urban place of residence, State, age, sex, and level of education.

7. The model was used to show the population projection changes within scenarios that combine different levels of these factors.

8. If the projection is carried out while only explicitly accounting for age and sex, influential factors like higher education, associated with decreased fertility, are left out.

9. Thus, a projection based on today’s much higher fertility rate of uneducated and rural women predicts a drastically larger population in the future.