Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) - Country Ranking - Africa

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: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Mauritius 17.71 2020
2 Tunisia 13.28 2020
3 Seychelles 11.83 2020
4 Morocco 11.59 2020
5 Algeria 10.79 2020
6 Egypt 8.78 2020
7 South Africa 8.39 2020
8 Lesotho 7.88 2020
9 Eritrea 7.33 2011
10 Botswana 7.27 2020
11 Cabo Verde 7.13 2020
12 Djibouti 7.09 2020
13 Eswatini 6.85 2020
14 Libya 6.69 2020
15 Sudan 6.50 2020
16 Ethiopia 6.25 2020
17 Namibia 6.02 2020
18 Benin 5.99 2020
19 Gabon 5.96 2020
20 Dem. Rep. Congo 5.90 2020
21 Liberia 5.89 2020
22 Senegal 5.72 2020
23 Somalia 5.70 2020
24 Mauritania 5.56 2020
25 Zimbabwe 5.47 2020
26 Guinea 5.47 2020
27 Madagascar 5.46 2020
28 São Tomé and Principe 5.45 2020
29 Niger 5.44 2020
30 Rwanda 5.43 2020
31 Mozambique 5.39 2020
32 Comoros 5.37 2020
33 Ghana 5.26 2020
34 Guinea-Bissau 5.23 2020
35 Central African Republic 5.21 2020
36 Côte d'Ivoire 5.18 2020
37 Sierra Leone 5.16 2020
38 Togo 5.15 2020
39 Nigeria 5.09 2020
40 Congo 4.94 2020
41 Cameroon 4.92 2020
42 Tanzania 4.91 2020
43 Mali 4.90 2020
44 Chad 4.90 2020
45 Malawi 4.86 2020
46 The Gambia 4.73 2020
47 Burundi 4.55 2020
48 Burkina Faso 4.53 2020
49 Angola 4.26 2020
50 Kenya 4.26 2020
51 Zambia 3.96 2020
52 Equatorial Guinea 3.91 2020
53 Uganda 3.82 2020

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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