Australia - Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population)

The latest value for Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population) in Australia was 55.05 as of 2020. Over the past 60 years, the value for this indicator has fluctuated between 63.63 in 1961 and 47.75 in 2008.

Definition: Age dependency ratio is the ratio of dependents--people younger than 15 or 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 63.38
1961 63.63
1962 63.42
1963 62.92
1964 62.37
1965 61.92
1966 61.42
1967 60.97
1968 60.60
1969 60.23
1970 59.74
1971 59.29
1972 58.83
1973 58.33
1974 57.75
1975 57.03
1976 56.67
1977 55.95
1978 55.07
1979 54.27
1980 53.67
1981 52.81
1982 52.31
1983 52.00
1984 51.66
1985 51.20
1986 51.02
1987 50.61
1988 50.11
1989 49.74
1990 49.58
1991 49.57
1992 49.74
1993 50.01
1994 50.19
1995 50.21
1996 50.25
1997 50.15
1998 49.98
1999 49.82
2000 49.71
2001 49.41
2002 49.15
2003 48.91
2004 48.71
2005 48.56
2006 48.19
2007 47.89
2008 47.75
2009 47.77
2010 47.95
2011 48.51
2012 49.07
2013 49.64
2014 50.26
2015 50.93
2016 51.73
2017 52.60
2018 53.49
2019 54.31
2020 55.05

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

General Comments: Relevance to gender indicator: this indicator implies the dependency burden that the working-age population bears in relation to children and the elderly. Many times single or widowed women who are the sole caregiver of a household have a high dependency

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Population