Demographic Indicators

Population and related measures reveal how differently these three societies are structured. Together India and China are home to a very large share of humanity — roughly one in every six people is Indian and another is Chinese. Pakistan's population is far smaller, only about one-tenth that of either India or China.

What the demographic figures show

• Although China is geographically the largest of the three and occupies the most land, it has the lowest population density, because its people are spread over a vast area. Table 8.1 sets out the full comparison.

• Population growth is highest in Pakistan, followed by India, with China the lowest. Scholars attribute China's low growth chiefly to the one-child norm introduced in the late 1970s.
• That norm is also linked to a decline in the sex ratio (females per 1000 males). In fact the sex ratio is low and biased against females in all three countries, which scholars trace to a common preference for sons; all three are now taking steps to improve the situation.
• The one-child policy has other consequences: within a few decades China will have far more elderly people relative to the young, which is why it later allowed couples to have two children.
• The fertility rate is low in China and very high in Pakistan.
• Urbanisation is high in China, while in India only about 34 per cent of people live in urban areas.

Roughly speaking, India and China each have well over a billion people while Pakistan has a couple of hundred million; India's density is the highest and China's the lowest, and Pakistan's growth and fertility rates stand out as the highest of the three.