Assignment 6

From a social and economic point of view, human demographers are concerned about the proportion (ratio) of workers in a population to those who are economically dependent on these workers, either directly or through taxes such as Social Security. The following formula, called the dependency ratio, is used as a summary statistic.

Dep. Ratio = 100 [(no. children under 15) + (no. elderly over 65)] / [no. persons 15 – 64]

We look at the dependency ratio in the following questions which you will answer below as you work within DemographyLab.


1 .		Referring to the Tabular Data view of DemographyLab, compute the 1998 dependency ratio for each of the seven countries. Compare and contrast each nation. Which component, children under 15 or elderly over 65, is most important for determining the dependency ratio for different nations?

2 .		Compute the dependency ratio for the USA for the years 1998, 2003, 2008, 2038. What happens to the dependency ratio as the USA enters the next century? Which component, children under 15 or elderly over 65, is most important for determining the changes in the dependency ratio? What are possible social or economic implications of these changes?

3 .		What do you think will happen to the dependency ratio for a country over the long term if vital rates remain constant? Test your hypothesis using DemographyLab.