Upper middle income - Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population)

The latest value for Age dependency ratio (% of working-age population) in Upper middle income was 45.50 as of 2020. Over the past 60 years, the value for this indicator has fluctuated between 79.86 in 1966 and 42.04 in 2012.

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 76.22
1961 76.76
1962 77.77
1963 78.83
1964 79.41
1965 79.32
1966 79.86
1967 79.62
1968 78.94
1969 78.27
1970 77.80
1971 77.77
1972 77.65
1973 77.43
1974 76.99
1975 76.24
1976 75.23
1977 74.00
1978 72.55
1979 70.93
1980 69.20
1981 67.31
1982 65.52
1983 63.81
1984 62.21
1985 60.79
1986 59.85
1987 59.06
1988 58.40
1989 57.79
1990 57.15
1991 56.99
1992 56.43
1993 55.67
1994 54.98
1995 54.46
1996 53.37
1997 52.75
1998 52.30
1999 51.61
2000 50.52
2001 49.66
2002 48.39
2003 46.92
2004 45.59
2005 44.53
2006 43.71
2007 43.10
2008 42.69
2009 42.38
2010 42.14
2011 42.06
2012 42.04
2013 42.11
2014 42.30
2015 42.62
2016 43.12
2017 43.71
2018 44.35
2019 44.96
2020 45.50

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