Ageing populations are an issue for governments across the world.
A key consideration is the economic impact of what is known as the “dependency ratio”.
It is a way of assessing how many children and retired people are dependent on the economic output of the working age population.
In 2024, for every 1,000 people of working age in Northern Ireland there were 586 dependants.
That is projected to rise to 614 per 1,000 in mid-2049.
That is an increase of about 5% but more significant is the shift in the composition of that dependency.
For children, the ratio declines from 316 to 248, while for pensioners it rises from 269 to 366 per 1,000 – a near 36% jump in the ratio of pensioners to workers.
