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

The value for Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) in Ireland was 22.57 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 22.57 in 2020 and a minimum value of 15.16 in 2004.

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 19.45
1961 19.49
1962 19.52
1963 19.51
1964 19.47
1965 19.38
1966 19.41
1967 19.41
1968 19.37
1969 19.30
1970 19.18
1971 19.02
1972 18.81
1973 18.61
1974 18.43
1975 18.30
1976 18.33
1977 18.36
1978 18.38
1979 18.34
1980 18.22
1981 18.29
1982 18.29
1983 18.25
1984 18.18
1985 18.10
1986 18.19
1987 18.27
1988 18.31
1989 18.29
1990 18.19
1991 17.96
1992 17.67
1993 17.36
1994 17.04
1995 16.75
1996 16.43
1997 16.12
1998 15.85
1999 15.63
2000 15.47
2001 15.33
2002 15.23
2003 15.18
2004 15.16
2005 15.17
2006 15.30
2007 15.45
2008 15.62
2009 15.84
2010 16.14
2011 16.73
2012 17.39
2013 18.10
2014 18.83
2015 19.58
2016 20.20
2017 20.81
2018 21.42
2019 22.01
2020 22.57

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