OECD members - Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population)

The value for Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) in OECD members was 26.83 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 26.83 in 2020 and a minimum value of 13.45 in 1960.

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 13.45
1961 13.62
1962 13.77
1963 13.91
1964 14.04
1965 14.17
1966 14.38
1967 14.58
1968 14.77
1969 14.95
1970 15.12
1971 15.32
1972 15.51
1973 15.68
1974 15.83
1975 15.96
1976 16.18
1977 16.39
1978 16.56
1979 16.67
1980 16.70
1981 16.68
1982 16.58
1983 16.45
1984 16.36
1985 16.36
1986 16.49
1987 16.67
1988 16.89
1989 17.12
1990 17.33
1991 17.56
1992 17.78
1993 17.98
1994 18.16
1995 18.33
1996 18.54
1997 18.71
1998 18.88
1999 19.04
2000 19.22
2001 19.41
2002 19.61
2003 19.81
2004 20.02
2005 20.22
2006 20.45
2007 20.68
2008 20.91
2009 21.20
2010 21.58
2011 21.99
2012 22.49
2013 23.03
2014 23.60
2015 24.16
2016 24.69
2017 25.21
2018 25.73
2019 26.26
2020 26.83

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