Dependency rising with fewer workers to support more seniors

Denver

THE world's working-age population is shrinking faster than expected, leaving fewer people to support a growing number of seniors, according to the Bloomberg Sunset Index.

Conventional measures of old-age dependency calculate the ratio of people ages 65 and older with those of working age: 15 to 64. But many people stop working well before 65: Men in 66 per cent of the 178 countries Bloomberg evaluated and women in 78 per cent can begin receiving retirement benefits earlier.

So the Bloomberg index calculates dependency based on each country's statutory pensionable age, revealing substantial differences in some places with 2016 estimates from organizations including the World Bank and United Nations. Nigeria, with a statutory pensionable age of 50, has only 4.8 workers supporting each senior, compared with 19.4 as indicated by conventional measures. Russia has 2.4 instead of 5.1, and Colombia has 4.5…