South Africa - Age dependency ratio, young (% of working-age population)

The value for Age dependency ratio, young (% of working-age population) in South Africa was 43.84 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 77.57 in 1966 and a minimum value of 43.84 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 73.65
1961 74.45
1962 75.42
1963 76.38
1964 77.03
1965 77.24
1966 77.57
1967 77.44
1968 76.99
1969 76.47
1970 75.99
1971 75.89
1972 75.76
1973 75.58
1974 75.30
1975 74.88
1976 74.93
1977 74.72
1978 74.39
1979 74.09
1980 73.92
1981 73.79
1982 73.85
1983 73.95
1984 73.90
1985 73.63
1986 73.78
1987 73.55
1988 73.06
1989 72.45
1990 71.75
1991 70.46
1992 69.04
1993 67.51
1994 65.82
1995 63.98
1996 62.30
1997 60.56
1998 58.75
1999 56.87
2000 54.96
2001 53.50
2002 51.97
2003 50.45
2004 49.06
2005 47.87
2006 47.05
2007 46.42
2008 45.96
2009 45.58
2010 45.25
2011 45.16
2012 44.99
2013 44.81
2014 44.68
2015 44.60
2016 44.49
2017 44.42
2018 44.33
2019 44.15
2020 43.84

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