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

The value for Age dependency ratio, young (% of working-age population) in OECD members was 27.40 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 49.07 in 1961 and a minimum value of 27.40 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 48.91
1961 49.07
1962 48.98
1963 48.72
1964 48.40
1965 48.09
1966 47.89
1967 47.63
1968 47.33
1969 46.99
1970 46.61
1971 46.12
1972 45.64
1973 45.13
1974 44.56
1975 43.90
1976 43.38
1977 42.73
1978 42.01
1979 41.26
1980 40.54
1981 39.81
1982 39.13
1983 38.51
1984 37.90
1985 37.30
1986 36.86
1987 36.40
1988 35.92
1989 35.48
1990 35.08
1991 34.77
1992 34.50
1993 34.25
1994 33.97
1995 33.65
1996 33.36
1997 33.00
1998 32.61
1999 32.21
2000 31.84
2001 31.43
2002 31.06
2003 30.71
2004 30.36
2005 30.00
2006 29.74
2007 29.47
2008 29.18
2009 28.92
2010 28.69
2011 28.56
2012 28.41
2013 28.26
2014 28.12
2015 27.99
2016 27.86
2017 27.76
2018 27.66
2019 27.54
2020 27.40

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

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Population