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

The value for Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) in Canada was 27.38 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 27.38 in 2020 and a minimum value of 12.95 in 1973.

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 13.14
1961 13.18
1962 13.19
1963 13.18
1964 13.16
1965 13.15
1966 13.10
1967 13.05
1968 13.01
1969 12.98
1970 12.97
1971 12.96
1972 12.95
1973 12.95
1974 12.97
1975 13.02
1976 13.18
1977 13.36
1978 13.54
1979 13.72
1980 13.90
1981 14.09
1982 14.27
1983 14.47
1984 14.70
1985 14.98
1986 15.25
1987 15.56
1988 15.89
1989 16.22
1990 16.53
1991 16.81
1992 17.05
1993 17.27
1994 17.47
1995 17.67
1996 17.85
1997 18.01
1998 18.16
1999 18.29
2000 18.40
2001 18.50
2002 18.59
2003 18.68
2004 18.79
2005 18.95
2006 19.14
2007 19.35
2008 19.62
2009 19.97
2010 20.41
2011 20.90
2012 21.49
2013 22.15
2014 22.87
2015 23.62
2016 24.32
2017 25.03
2018 25.76
2019 26.54
2020 27.38

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