Old-age dependency ratio

Description: Number of people aged 65 and over per 100 working-age people (aged 15 to 64).
Data source: UN, World Population Prospects (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Unit: %
Date range: 1950-2023
Last updated: 2024-07-12
Next expected update: 2027-07-12
Managed by: Lucas Rodés-Guirao and Fiona Spooner

The old-age dependency ratio compares those aged 65 and over with the working-age population (aged 15 to 64).
This is a purely demographic measure. It does not count who is actually working or financially dependent — many people aged 15–64 are not in the labor force, and many people over 65 still are.

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Frequently asked questions

How did Our World in Data process this data?

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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Notes on our processing step for this indicator

We compute the dependency ratios from the UN's population by age. The total dependency ratio is (population aged 0–14 plus population aged 65 and over) divided by population aged 15–64, multiplied by 100. The youth and old-age ratios use only the under-15 or 65+ numerators, respectively.

Data sources

United Nations – World Population Prospects

World Population Prospects 2024 is the 28th edition of the official estimates and projections of the global population that have been published by the United Nations since 1951. The estimates are based on all available sources of data on population size and levels of fertility, mortality and international migration for 237 countries or areas. If you have questions about this dataset, please refer to their FAQ. You can also explore data sources for each country or visit their main page for more details.

Retrieved on

July 11, 2024

Retrieved from

https://population.un.org/wpp/downloads/

Citation

This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2024). World Population Prospects 2024, Online Edition.

United Nations – World Population Prospects – Interim Update

This is an interim update containing revised medium-variant estimates and projections for Togo.

Retrieved on

March 31, 2026

Retrieved from

https://population.un.org/wpp/downloads/

Citation

This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2024). World Population Prospects 2024, Online Edition.

How to cite

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Old-age dependency ratio”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from United Nations. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261022-212802/grapher/age-dependency-ratio-old.html [online resource] (archived on October 22, 2026).

How to cite this data

If you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

UN, World Population Prospects (2024) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

UN, World Population Prospects (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Old-age dependency ratio – UN WPP” [dataset]. United Nations, “World Population Prospects”; United Nations, “World Population Prospects – Interim Update” [original data]. Retrieved October 22, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261022-212802/grapher/age-dependency-ratio-old.html (archived on October 22, 2026).

All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately. This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.

All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

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