European Union - Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population)

The value for Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) in European Union was 32.40 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 32.40 in 2020 and a minimum value of 14.80 in 1960.

Definition: Age dependency ratio, old, is the ratio of older dependents--people 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 14.80
1961 15.08
1962 15.34
1963 15.60
1964 15.87
1965 16.14
1966 16.50
1967 16.84
1968 17.18
1969 17.52
1970 17.84
1971 18.20
1972 18.52
1973 18.81
1974 19.07
1975 19.31
1976 19.64
1977 19.96
1978 20.22
1979 20.32
1980 20.23
1981 20.05
1982 19.68
1983 19.24
1984 18.91
1985 18.75
1986 18.86
1987 19.12
1988 19.47
1989 19.82
1990 20.13
1991 20.50
1992 20.84
1993 21.14
1994 21.42
1995 21.68
1996 22.04
1997 22.36
1998 22.66
1999 22.97
2000 23.29
2001 23.64
2002 23.99
2003 24.34
2004 24.65
2005 24.92
2006 25.23
2007 25.48
2008 25.72
2009 26.00
2010 26.38
2011 26.85
2012 27.41
2013 28.04
2014 28.70
2015 29.36
2016 29.97
2017 30.57
2018 31.17
2019 31.77
2020 32.40

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

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Population