How heavy is India's dependency burden?
Age dependency ratio as a share of the working-age population.
Source: World Bank Indicators API · indicator SP.POP.DPND Fetched 3/6/2026
At a glance
46.6%
latest value, 2024
78.2%
first value, 1960
65
annual observations in this artifact
annual
source frequency
The explanation Draft prose wraps locked source numbers; no numbers are generated at request time
Dependency ratios help explain how many children and elderly people sit on top of the working-age base.
Dependency ratios help explain how many children and elderly people sit on top of the working-age base.
Age dependency ratio as a share of the working-age population.
Read this as one piece of evidence, not the whole story. The useful question is what changes over time, what stays stuck, and what the indicator leaves out.
Keep pulling the thread
How many people live in India? -> Is India's population growth slowing? -> How fast is India's fertility falling? ->Methodology
MeasureAge dependency ratio
GeographyIndia
Unit% of working-age population
TransformValues displayed as percent of working-age population.
CaveatThis is an age structure measure, not a household income measure.