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

The value for Age dependency ratio, young (% of working-age population) in World was 39.08 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 66.82 in 1966 and a minimum value of 39.08 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 64.24
1961 64.81
1962 65.48
1963 66.10
1964 66.46
1965 66.50
1966 66.82
1967 66.75
1968 66.43
1969 66.05
1970 65.70
1971 65.54
1972 65.32
1973 65.02
1974 64.59
1975 64.00
1976 63.48
1977 62.78
1978 61.95
1979 61.04
1980 60.11
1981 59.24
1982 58.41
1983 57.62
1984 56.84
1985 56.09
1986 55.69
1987 55.26
1988 54.82
1989 54.36
1990 53.88
1991 53.64
1992 53.20
1993 52.64
1994 52.05
1995 51.48
1996 50.71
1997 50.09
1998 49.49
1999 48.77
2000 47.89
2001 47.18
2002 46.29
2003 45.32
2004 44.42
2005 43.64
2006 43.02
2007 42.50
2008 42.06
2009 41.67
2010 41.30
2011 41.02
2012 40.73
2013 40.45
2014 40.19
2015 39.97
2016 39.79
2017 39.62
2018 39.46
2019 39.29
2020 39.08

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