India now has more working-age people than China
People aged 15–64 in India and China, billions, 1990–2025.
India had 1,002 million people aged 15–64 in 2025, against China's 980 million.
The year India's working-age population passed China's. In 1990 China had 251 million more.
India's lead in 2025, up from 3.5 million in 2023: India's line keeps rising while China's is flat.
the numbers
| Year | India (bn) | China (bn) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 0.50 | 0.75 |
| 2000 | 0.64 | 0.86 |
| 2010 | 0.79 | 0.97 |
| 2015 | 0.87 | 0.99 |
| 2020 | 0.94 | 0.98 |
| 2021 | 0.96 | 0.98 |
| 2022 | 0.97 | 0.98 |
| 2023 | 0.98 | 0.97 |
| 2024 | 0.99 | 0.98 |
| 2025 | 1.00 | 0.98 |
source notes & method
Derived: working-age population = total population × share aged 15–64, both from WDI (updated 7 Jul 2026, via FRED series POPTOTINA647NWDB, POPTOTCNA647NWDB, SPPOP1564TOZSIND, SPPOP1564TOZSCHN). Age shares come from UN World Population Prospects 2024; WDI's China total uses China NBS figures, which are lower than the UN's, so China's line is slightly below UN WPP values (UN WPP 2024 via World Economics: China 986.8M, India 1,001.7M in 2025). Crossover year falls in 2023 on WDI data; on UN WPP figures the gap in 2022–23 is within estimation error. Spot-check: GlobalNote (World Bank) 2025: India 1,001,696k, China 980,126k.
Published 3 Nov 2026
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