China on Wednesday sought to downplay India’s recent overtaking world’s most populous nation with 142.86 crore people, saying that it still has a “quality” workforce of close to 900 million people to provide a strong impetus for development.
According to the latest United Nations Population Fund data, India surpassed China to become the world’s most populous nation with 142.86 crore people, while China has a population of 142.57 crore making it the second most populous country, as per the UN world population dashboard.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that “I want to tell you that population dividend does not depend on quantity but also quality.”
The population is important and so is the talent, he said about China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States. China’s population is over 1.4 billion. Those in the working age is close to 900 million and that group of populations is 10.5 years of education on average,” he said.
As Premier Li Qiang pointed out our population dividend has not disappeared and our talent dividend is booming and the impetus is strong for development,” Wang said.
According to a new UNFPA report, 25 per cent of India’s population is in the age group of 0-14 years, 18 per cent in the 10 to 19 age group, 26 per cent in the age bracket of 10 to 24 years, 68 per cent in 15 to 64 years age group, and 7 per cent above 65 years.
Also Read: Prayers And Calls To Find Missing Indian Climber Anurag Maloo, A Passionate Peacemonger