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

The value for Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) in United Kingdom was 29.30 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 29.30 in 2020 and a minimum value of 18.08 in 1960.

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 18.08
1961 18.29
1962 18.45
1963 18.58
1964 18.72
1965 18.91
1966 19.28
1967 19.67
1968 20.06
1969 20.42
1970 20.75
1971 21.21
1972 21.61
1973 21.96
1974 22.25
1975 22.49
1976 22.83
1977 23.10
1978 23.29
1979 23.37
1980 23.34
1981 23.38
1982 23.29
1983 23.15
1984 23.05
1985 23.03
1986 23.23
1987 23.48
1988 23.74
1989 23.97
1990 24.12
1991 24.33
1992 24.47
1993 24.55
1994 24.58
1995 24.58
1996 24.61
1997 24.59
1998 24.55
1999 24.49
2000 24.42
2001 24.42
2002 24.40
2003 24.36
2004 24.33
2005 24.30
2006 24.39
2007 24.46
2008 24.58
2009 24.79
2010 25.13
2011 25.61
2012 26.18
2013 26.80
2014 27.38
2015 27.88
2016 28.26
2017 28.55
2018 28.78
2019 29.01
2020 29.30

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