The age distribution of a country's population is shown below. Use the information is answer the question below. Age group (YEARS) Population 0 - 15 16 - 40...
The age distribution of a country's population is shown below. Use the information is answer the question below.
Age group (YEARS)
Population
0 - 15 16 - 40 41 - 60 Over 60
30% 45% 15% 10%
What is the dependency ratio?
Answer Details
The dependency ratio is a measure of the number of people who are not of working age (0-15 and over 60) compared to the number of people who are of working age (16-60).
In this case, 30% of the population is 0-15 and 10% is over 60, so 40% are not of working age. The remaining 60% of the population is of working age.
So, the dependency ratio can be calculated as the number of people who are not of working age divided by the number of people who are of working age, or 40% divided by 60% which is 2:3.
In simple terms, for every 3 people of working age, there are 2 people who are not of working age.