North America - Population ages 15-64 (% of total population)

Population ages 15-64 (% of total population) in North America was 65.11 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 60 years was 67.14 in 2008, while its lowest value was 59.85 in 1962.

Definition: Total population between the ages 15 to 64 as a percentage of the total population. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.

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

See also:

Year Value
1960 60.05
1961 59.87
1962 59.85
1963 59.96
1964 60.12
1965 60.33
1966 60.55
1967 60.82
1968 61.12
1969 61.46
1970 61.85
1971 62.35
1972 62.85
1973 63.34
1974 63.84
1975 64.37
1976 64.68
1977 65.04
1978 65.40
1979 65.72
1980 65.97
1981 66.17
1982 66.32
1983 66.42
1984 66.47
1985 66.48
1986 66.38
1987 66.27
1988 66.16
1989 66.04
1990 65.93
1991 65.77
1992 65.63
1993 65.55
1994 65.52
1995 65.55
1996 65.57
1997 65.68
1998 65.84
1999 66.01
2000 66.19
2001 66.39
2002 66.55
2003 66.69
2004 66.86
2005 67.04
2006 67.05
2007 67.09
2008 67.14
2009 67.13
2010 67.07
2011 66.96
2012 66.84
2013 66.69
2014 66.52
2015 66.32
2016 66.11
2017 65.88
2018 65.63
2019 65.37
2020 65.11

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. This indicator is used for calculating age dependency ratio (percent of working-age population). The age dependency ratio is the ratio of the sum of the population aged 0-14 and the population aged 65 and above to the population aged 15-64. In many developing countries, the once rapidly growing population group of the under-15 population is shrinking. As a result, high fertility rates, together with declining mortality rates, are now reflected in the larger share of the 65 and older population.

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: 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. Total population is based on the de facto population including all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. The values shown are midyear estimates. For more information see metadata for total population (SP.POP.TOTL).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Population