New Zealand - Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population)

The value for Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) in New Zealand was 25.50 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 25.50 in 2020 and a minimum value of 13.72 in 1965.

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 14.77
1961 14.56
1962 14.34
1963 14.12
1964 13.91
1965 13.72
1966 13.82
1967 13.91
1968 14.00
1969 14.08
1970 14.18
1971 14.20
1972 14.22
1973 14.21
1974 14.20
1975 14.20
1976 14.50
1977 14.79
1978 15.06
1979 15.29
1980 15.49
1981 15.58
1982 15.65
1983 15.71
1984 15.79
1985 15.89
1986 16.09
1987 16.29
1988 16.51
1989 16.73
1990 16.94
1991 17.09
1992 17.25
1993 17.41
1994 17.55
1995 17.66
1996 17.79
1997 17.87
1998 17.93
1999 17.99
2000 18.05
2001 18.04
2002 18.04
2003 18.06
2004 18.10
2005 18.17
2006 18.39
2007 18.61
2008 18.87
2009 19.21
2010 19.64
2011 20.07
2012 20.59
2013 21.19
2014 21.80
2015 22.40
2016 23.01
2017 23.60
2018 24.19
2019 24.82
2020 25.50

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