South Africa - Population ages 0-14 (% of total population)

Population ages 0-14 (% of total population) in South Africa was 28.80 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 60 years was 42.01 in 1966, while its lowest value was 28.80 in 2020.

Definition: Population between the ages 0 to 14 as a percentage of the total population. Population is based on the de facto definition of population.

Source: World Bank staff estimates based on age/sex distributions of United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects: 2019 Revision.

See also:

Year Value
1960 40.77
1961 41.02
1962 41.33
1963 41.63
1964 41.83
1965 41.91
1966 42.01
1967 41.98
1968 41.85
1969 41.70
1970 41.56
1971 41.52
1972 41.47
1973 41.41
1974 41.32
1975 41.18
1976 41.19
1977 41.12
1978 41.01
1979 40.92
1980 40.86
1981 40.81
1982 40.82
1983 40.85
1984 40.84
1985 40.75
1986 40.79
1987 40.72
1988 40.55
1989 40.35
1990 40.12
1991 39.67
1992 39.18
1993 38.63
1994 38.02
1995 37.34
1996 36.71
1997 36.06
1998 35.36
1999 34.63
2000 33.86
2001 33.27
2002 32.63
2003 31.99
2004 31.40
2005 30.88
2006 30.50
2007 30.21
2008 30.00
2009 29.82
2010 29.67
2011 29.62
2012 29.53
2013 29.43
2014 29.35
2015 29.29
2016 29.21
2017 29.15
2018 29.08
2019 28.97
2020 28.80

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. This indicator is used for calculating age dependency ratio (percent of working-age population). The age dependency ratio is the ratio of the sum of the population aged 0-14 and the population aged 65 and above to the population aged 15-64. In many developing countries, the once rapidly growing population group of the under-15 population is shrinking. As a result, high fertility rates, together with declining mortality rates, are now reflected in the larger share of the 65 and older population.

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: 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. Total population is based on the de facto population including all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. The values shown are midyear estimates. For more information see metadata for total population (SP.POP.TOTL).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Population