India - Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population)

The latest value for Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population) in India was 48.66 as of 2020. Over the past 60 years, the value for this indicator has fluctuated between 81.52 in 1966 and 48.66 in 2020.

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 77.00
1961 78.01
1962 79.19
1963 80.30
1964 81.00
1965 81.12
1966 81.52
1967 81.31
1968 80.68
1969 79.95
1970 79.27
1971 79.03
1972 78.72
1973 78.34
1974 77.83
1975 77.17
1976 77.00
1977 76.61
1978 76.09
1979 75.53
1980 75.00
1981 74.88
1982 74.74
1983 74.55
1984 74.24
1985 73.79
1986 73.75
1987 73.45
1988 72.95
1989 72.37
1990 71.73
1991 71.31
1992 70.80
1993 70.20
1994 69.46
1995 68.59
1996 67.88
1997 67.06
1998 66.15
1999 65.18
2000 64.18
2001 63.43
2002 62.60
2003 61.73
2004 60.84
2005 59.94
2006 59.21
2007 58.47
2008 57.71
2009 56.88
2010 55.99
2011 55.21
2012 54.31
2013 53.35
2014 52.45
2015 51.64
2016 50.89
2017 50.29
2018 49.78
2019 49.25
2020 48.66

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