North America - Age dependency ratio, young (% of working-age population)

The value for Age dependency ratio, young (% of working-age population) in North America was 27.80 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 51.91 in 1961 and a minimum value of 27.80 in 2020.

Definition: Age dependency ratio, young, is the ratio of younger dependents--people younger than 15--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 51.57
1961 51.91
1962 51.85
1963 51.49
1964 50.96
1965 50.33
1966 49.60
1967 48.78
1968 47.85
1969 46.84
1970 45.74
1971 44.34
1972 43.00
1973 41.69
1974 40.37
1975 39.02
1976 38.09
1977 37.08
1978 36.07
1979 35.15
1980 34.38
1981 33.77
1982 33.29
1983 32.93
1984 32.65
1985 32.44
1986 32.45
1987 32.49
1988 32.56
1989 32.64
1990 32.72
1991 32.97
1992 33.19
1993 33.34
1994 33.39
1995 33.34
1996 33.35
1997 33.21
1998 32.97
1999 32.69
2000 32.41
2001 32.03
2002 31.73
2003 31.45
2004 31.10
2005 30.68
2006 30.55
2007 30.32
2008 30.04
2009 29.78
2010 29.58
2011 29.37
2012 29.13
2013 28.90
2014 28.69
2015 28.50
2016 28.30
2017 28.17
2018 28.07
2019 27.95
2020 27.80

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