Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population) - Country Ranking - Europe

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: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Finland 62.39 2020
2 France 62.36 2020
3 Sweden 61.17 2020
4 Latvia 59.03 2020
5 Estonia 58.41 2020
6 Denmark 57.35 2020
7 United Kingdom 57.06 2020
8 Italy 56.96 2020
9 Belgium 56.96 2020
10 Bulgaria 56.61 2020
11 Lithuania 56.48 2020
12 Greece 56.10 2020
13 Czech Republic 56.00 2020
14 Slovenia 55.94 2020
15 Portugal 55.83 2020
16 Croatia 55.75 2020
17 Netherlands 55.61 2020
18 Malta 55.52 2020
19 Germany 55.38 2020
20 Ireland 54.82 2020
21 Iceland 53.96 2020
22 Norway 53.34 2020
23 Romania 53.26 2020
24 Hungary 52.84 2020
25 Serbia 52.50 2020
26 Spain 52.39 2020
27 Switzerland 51.64 2020
28 Poland 51.42 2020
29 Montenegro 51.09 2020
30 Austria 50.64 2020
31 Ukraine 49.12 2020
32 Turkey 49.08 2020
33 Belarus 48.86 2020
34 Bosnia and Herzegovina 48.01 2020
35 Slovak Republic 47.61 2020
36 Albania 46.93 2020
37 Cyprus 44.90 2020
38 North Macedonia 44.48 2020
39 Luxembourg 42.75 2020
40 Moldova 39.63 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

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