India is on track to surpass the People's Republic of China (PRC) by mid-2023 as the world's most populous nation, United Nations data noted on Wednesday.

Data projections show India will have a population of 1.4286 billion by the middle of this year, while the PRC will have 1.4257 billion, according to the UN Population Fund's (UNFPA) "State of World Population Report," which was released Wednesday.

The PRC has had the most people in the world since at least 1950, the year UN population data began. Both the PRC and India have more than 1.4 billion people, and together they make up more than a third of the world's 8 billion people.