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

The value for Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) in United States was 25.59 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 25.59 in 2020 and a minimum value of 15.14 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 15.14
1961 15.32
1962 15.43
1963 15.51
1964 15.58
1965 15.64
1966 15.78
1967 15.92
1968 16.05
1969 16.16
1970 16.25
1971 16.36
1972 16.45
1973 16.54
1974 16.62
1975 16.70
1976 16.87
1977 17.03
1978 17.19
1979 17.38
1980 17.57
1981 17.72
1982 17.85
1983 17.98
1984 18.14
1985 18.31
1986 18.52
1987 18.72
1988 18.91
1989 19.08
1990 19.22
1991 19.34
1992 19.41
1993 19.45
1994 19.44
1995 19.38
1996 19.30
1997 19.17
1998 19.01
1999 18.85
2000 18.70
2001 18.61
2002 18.54
2003 18.48
2004 18.44
2005 18.43
2006 18.53
2007 18.66
2008 18.83
2009 19.08
2010 19.43
2011 19.86
2012 20.36
2013 20.92
2014 21.51
2015 22.14
2016 22.80
2017 23.46
2018 24.14
2019 24.85
2020 25.59

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