Costa Rica - Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population)

The latest value for Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population) in Costa Rica was 45.10 as of 2020. Over the past 60 years, the value for this indicator has fluctuated between 95.08 in 1962 and 44.54 in 2016.

Definition: Age dependency ratio is the ratio of dependents--people younger than 15 or older than 64--to the working-age population--those ages 15-64. Data are shown as the proportion of dependents per 100 working-age population.

Source: World Bank staff estimates based on age distributions of United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects: 2019 Revision.

See also:

Year Value
1960 93.49
1961 94.70
1962 95.08
1963 94.95
1964 94.68
1965 94.38
1966 94.28
1967 93.89
1968 93.18
1969 92.05
1970 90.47
1971 88.38
1972 86.07
1973 83.58
1974 81.02
1975 78.52
1976 76.15
1977 74.03
1978 72.14
1979 70.42
1980 68.87
1981 68.06
1982 67.18
1983 66.39
1984 65.90
1985 65.76
1986 65.84
1987 66.20
1988 66.69
1989 67.08
1990 67.23
1991 67.15
1992 66.74
1993 66.08
1994 65.26
1995 64.36
1996 63.30
1997 62.18
1998 60.96
1999 59.59
2000 58.08
2001 56.77
2002 55.32
2003 53.81
2004 52.36
2005 51.03
2006 49.80
2007 48.73
2008 47.79
2009 46.96
2010 46.22
2011 45.73
2012 45.31
2013 44.96
2014 44.72
2015 44.58
2016 44.54
2017 44.57
2018 44.66
2019 44.84
2020 45.10

Development Relevance: Patterns of development in a country are partly determined by the age composition of its population. Different age groups have different impacts on both the environment and on infrastructure needs. Therefore the age structure of a population is useful for analyzing resource use and formulating future policy and planning goals with regards infrastructure and development.

Limitations and Exceptions: Because the five-year age group is the cohort unit and five-year period data are used in the United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects, interpolations to obtain annual data or single age structure may not reflect actual events or age composition. For more information, see the original source.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Dependency ratios capture variations in the proportions of children, elderly people, and working-age people in the population that imply the dependency burden that the working-age population bears in relation to children and the elderly. But dependency ratios show only the age composition of a population, not economic dependency. Some children and elderly people are part of the labor force, and many working-age people are not. Age structure in the World Bank's population estimates is based on the age structure in United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects. For more information, see the original source.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Relevance to gender indicator: this indicator implies the dependency burden that the working-age population bears in relation to children and the elderly. Many times single or widowed women who are the sole caregiver of a household have a high dependency

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Population