COUNTRY / INDICATOR
South Africa Age Dependency Ratio
South Africa age dependency ratio: latest available value for 2025, historical series from 2016, ranking context and source documentation.
Series overview
SP.POP.DPND| Year | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 48,39 | 0,08 |
| 2024 | 48,31 | -0,06 |
| 2023 | 48,37 | -0,18 |
| 2022 | 48,55 | -0,37 |
| 2021 | 48,92 | -0,58 |
| 2020 | 49,50 | -0,60 |
| 2019 | 50,09 | -0,58 |
| 2018 | 50,68 | -0,59 |
| 2017 | 51,27 | 0,21 |
| 2016 | 51,06 | — |
Source methodology
World Development IndicatorsIndicator note: 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 organization: World Population Prospects, United Nations (UN), publisher: UN Population Division; Staff estimates, World Bank (WB)
Metadata fetched: 2026-09-27 03:51:09. Open original metadata response.
Revision history
25 detected changesSource revisions are retained before the current observation is replaced. This table documents the previous and replacement value for reproducibility.
| Detected | Data year | Previous value | Replacement value | Source | Source update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-28 20:53:00 | 2020 | 49,50 | 49,50 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-28 20:53:00 | 2021 | 48,92 | 48,92 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-28 20:53:00 | 2022 | 48,55 | 48,55 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-28 20:53:00 | 2023 | 48,37 | 48,37 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-28 20:53:00 | 2024 | 48,31 | 48,31 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-28 20:53:00 | 2025 | 48,39 | 48,39 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-09 17:04:42 | 2020 | 49,50 | 49,50 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-09 17:04:42 | 2021 | 48,92 | 48,92 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-09 17:04:42 | 2022 | 48,55 | 48,55 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-09 17:04:42 | 2023 | 48,37 | 48,37 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-09 17:04:42 | 2024 | 48,31 | 48,31 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-09-09 17:04:42 | 2025 | 48,39 | 48,39 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-08 10:50:20 | 2020 | 49,50 | 49,50 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-08 10:50:20 | 2021 | 48,92 | 48,92 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-08 10:50:20 | 2022 | 48,55 | 48,55 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-08 10:50:20 | 2023 | 48,37 | 48,37 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-08 10:50:20 | 2024 | 48,31 | 48,31 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-08 10:50:20 | 2025 | 48,39 | 48,39 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-05 22:52:55 | 2020 | 49,50 | 49,50 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-05 22:52:55 | 2021 | 48,92 | 48,92 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-05 22:52:55 | 2022 | 48,55 | 48,55 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-05 22:52:55 | 2023 | 48,37 | 48,37 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-05 22:52:55 | 2024 | 48,31 | 48,31 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-05 22:52:55 | 2025 | 48,39 | 48,39 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
| 2026-08-02 06:24:56 | 2025 | 48,39 | 48,39 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
Country-specific interpretation
Automatically derived from the displayed seriesSouth Africa recorded 48,39 percent in 2025, the latest year available in this series.
Compared with 2024, the age dependency ratio increased by 0,08.
Across the latest five-year comparison window, the series shows an downward direction.
Across 10 observations from 2016 to 2025, the average was 49,51; the minimum was 48,31 in 2024 and the maximum was 51,27 in 2017.
South Africa ranks 56 out of 217 countries with a current value in the portal ranking.
The latest value is below the available average for Sub-Saharan Africa.
It is also below the available average for the Upper middle income group.
Demographic pressure on the working-age population.