WASHINGTON, Aug 18: Pakistan's population is currently at 159 million and is expected to rise to 295 million by 2050, says a US-based research institute.

A report, released this week by the Population Reference Bureau, Washington, predicts India will become the world's most populous nation with 1,628 million people by 2050, outpacing China with 1,437 million. China's population at present is 1,300 million while that of India is 1,087 million.

The US population is 294 million and is expected to touch 420 million by 2050. The US is the only industrial nation whose population is increasing, half of which is attributed to immigration.

The uneven pace of population growth between developing and industrialized nations represents the world's demographic "fault line", the report said. Nearly 99 per cent of all population increase, it said, takes place in poor countries, while population size is static or declining in the rich nations.

As a consequence, by 2050, population in the industrialized countries is projected to increase by merely four per cent while that of developing countries is expected to rise by 55 per cent.

Population in Western Europe will shrink while West Asian nations are expected to see a rise by about 186 million by 2050. Overall, world population, estimated at 6,396 million in mid-2004, is projected to increase to 9,276 million by mid-2050.