Middle income - Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population)

The latest value for Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population) in Middle income was 51.40 as of 2020. Over the past 60 years, the value for this indicator has fluctuated between 82.01 in 1966 and 51.04 in 2015.

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 77.52
1961 78.38
1962 79.50
1963 80.59
1964 81.27
1965 81.40
1966 82.01
1967 81.99
1968 81.57
1969 81.09
1970 80.67
1971 80.64
1972 80.50
1973 80.26
1974 79.84
1975 79.19
1976 78.63
1977 77.87
1978 76.92
1979 75.87
1980 74.77
1981 73.76
1982 72.78
1983 71.82
1984 70.88
1985 69.97
1986 69.49
1987 68.97
1988 68.44
1989 67.87
1990 67.27
1991 66.99
1992 66.46
1993 65.77
1994 65.03
1995 64.30
1996 63.37
1997 62.60
1998 61.86
1999 60.97
2000 59.88
2001 59.07
2002 58.05
2003 56.93
2004 55.87
2005 54.96
2006 54.23
2007 53.61
2008 53.09
2009 52.61
2010 52.17
2011 51.88
2012 51.59
2013 51.34
2014 51.15
2015 51.04
2016 51.07
2017 51.15
2018 51.26
2019 51.35
2020 51.40

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

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