Abstract
The age group composition of populations varies substantially across continents and within countries, and is linked to levels of development, health status and poverty. The subnational variability in the shape of the population pyramid as well as the respective dependency ratio are reflective of the different levels of development of a country and are drivers for a country’s economic prospects and health burdens. Whether measured as the ratio between those of working age and those young and old who are dependent upon them, or through separate young and old-age metrics, dependency ratios are often highly heterogeneous between and within countries. Assessments of subnational dependency ratio and age structure patterns have been undertaken for specific countries and across high income regions, but to a lesser extent across the low income regions. In the framework of the WorldPop Project, through the assembly of over 100 million records across 6,389 subnational administrative units, subnational dependency ratio and high resolution gridded age/sex group datasets were produced for 87 countries in Africa and Asia.
Highlights
Background & SummaryPopulations in low income countries are generally younger and growing more rapidly compared to those in high income countries
Population demographics have been central to the Millennium Development Goals and are key to the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda[2], and development policies need to account for population dynamics and their relationships with social, economic and environmental factors[3,4]
The ratio between the share of the ‘dependent age’ population to the remaining ‘working age’ population is generally quantified through the ‘age dependency ratio’[5,9,10]
Summary
Populations in low income countries are generally younger and growing more rapidly compared to those in high income countries. Experiencing high young-age and old-age dependency ratios means that working age populations face a greater burden in supporting and providing the social services needed by children and elders[16]. In areas such as the sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, age dependency ratios remain relatively high, and only in some cases have they started to slowly decline, prompting opportunities for development and economic growth[17,18], with the potential to enter into the so-called ‘demographic dividend’[19]. Over 100 million records were extracted from census data, census microdata and household survey data, assembled and used to derive the proportional age and sex structures for 6,389 subnational administrative units
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