Countries by Age dependency ratio, young (% of working-age population)
Central African Republic ranks first with a young age dependency ratio of 100.32%, meaning there are roughly as many children under 15 as there are working-age adults. At the other end, South Korea records 15.06%, the lowest among all 216 countries measured. The gap of more than 85 percentage points reflects the extreme divergence in demographic structures across the world.
Ranking 2024
Values shown in %.
Analysis
This metric measures the proportion of young dependents relative to the working-age population. As defined by the World Bank: 'Age dependency ratio, young, is the ratio of younger dependents--people younger than 15--to the working-age population--those ages 15-64. Data are shown as the proportion of dependents per 100 working-age population.' The unit is percent, and a higher value indicates a larger share of young dependents per 100 working-age people. The dataset covers 216 countries using indicator SP.POP.DPND.YG, with all 216 countries reporting data from the last seven years and 100% of data points classified as official quality. No extreme outliers were flagged under a 3-standard-deviation threshold, and average year-over-year change was 1.4%, indicating stable, low-volatility data.
The top of the ranking is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. Central African Republic leads at 100.32% (Rank 1), followed by Niger at 91.73% (Rank 2), Somalia at 91.69% (Rank 3), Democratic Republic of Congo at 90.45% (Rank 4), and Mali at 89.64% (Rank 5). Chad (88.87%, Rank 6), Burundi (84.71%, Rank 7), Mozambique (84.29%, Rank 8), Angola (84.00%, Rank 9), and Uganda (80.24%, Rank 10) round out the top ten. Outside Africa, Afghanistan ranks 12th at 78.39% and Yemen ranks 21st at 72.99%, representing the highest-ranked countries outside the African continent.
The middle of the ranking shows considerable variation. Pakistan ranks 46th at 62.14% and Egypt ranks 63rd at 50.87%, while Guatemala (49.67%, Rank 65) and Kazakhstan (47.40%, Rank 70) sit in the upper-middle range. Israel appears at Rank 76 with 45.65%, higher than many similarly developed economies, reflecting its distinct demographic profile within the ranking data. By contrast, China ranks 178th at 23.09%, Thailand 196th at 21.10%, and the United States 144th at 26.76%. One notable anomaly: Samoa ranks 28th at 69.11%, placing it alongside large sub-Saharan African nations and well above regional peers such as Fiji (40.79%, Rank 88) and Papua New Guinea (53.09%, Rank 59).
This metric captures only the ratio of under-15 dependents to the 15-64 working-age population and does not account for actual labor force participation, which can differ substantially from working-age population size. Countries with large informal economies or high youth unemployment may have effectively fewer productive workers than the denominator implies, potentially understating true dependency burdens. The metric also excludes elderly dependents, so countries with aging populations may appear structurally lighter on dependency than a full dependency ratio would indicate. Territorial and administrative units such as Guam (Rank 84), Puerto Rico (Rank 211), and Macao SAR (Rank 207) are included alongside sovereign states, which may affect regional comparisons. Data for countries affected by conflict or limited administrative capacity, such as Somalia (Rank 3) and South Sudan (Rank 32), may rely on estimates with wider uncertainty margins.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SP.POP.DPND.YG, for the reference year 2024. The metric is defined as follows: 'Age dependency ratio, young, is the ratio of younger dependents--people younger than 15--to the working-age population--those ages 15-64. Data are shown as the proportion of dependents per 100 working-age population.' Values are expressed as a percentage, and higher values are treated as better for ranking purposes in this reference. The dataset covers 216 countries, all of which have data from within the last seven years (100% recency). All 216 data points are classified as official quality (100%), and no extreme outliers were detected under a 3-standard-deviation threshold. Year-over-year volatility averaged 1.4%, well within the 50% stability threshold. The ranking range spans from 15.06% (South Korea, Rank 216) to 100.32% (Central African Republic, Rank 1), a spread of approximately 566%. The dataset includes sovereign states, dependent territories, and special administrative regions, which should be considered when making cross-country comparisons.