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Data for 2021

Population Aged 65 and Over, 2021

2021, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

The share of a country's population aged 65 and over is the most common single measure of how far a population has aged. It shapes the demand for pensions, health care and long-term care, and it rises almost everywhere as people live longer and have fewer children.

Population Aged 65 and Over, 2021 covers 222 countries. Vatican City is highest, at 45.61234; Qatar is lowest, at 1.30386. The middle country reads 7.76312. Against 2020, 222 values changed (198 up, 24 down), the same countries are covered.

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Population Aged 65 and Over · Data for 2021

HighestVatican City

45.61234

LowestQatar

1.30386

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Population Aged 65 and Over, 2021, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 222 countries · select a heading to sort

Population Aged 65 and Over, 2021: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
Vatican CityVATSouthern Europe45.61234
MonacoMCOWestern Europe37.31928
JapanJPNEastern Asia29.21700
ItalyITASouthern Europe23.66197
PortugalPRTSouthern Europe23.29087
Puerto RicoPRICaribbean23.20577
FinlandFINNorthern Europe22.87496
GreeceGRCSouthern Europe22.83895
GermanyDEUWestern Europe22.13454
CroatiaHRVSouthern Europe22.10067
Isle of ManIMNNorthern Europe22.04672
SerbiaSRBSouthern Europe21.88860
BulgariaBGREastern Europe21.70322
United States Virgin IslandsVIRCaribbean21.45936
FranceFRAWestern Europe21.05075
LatviaLVANorthern Europe20.84616
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBIHSouthern Europe20.67769
CzechiaCZEEastern Europe20.53715
EstoniaESTNorthern Europe20.43380
SloveniaSVNSouthern Europe20.43091
HungaryHUNEastern Europe20.40501
San MarinoSMRSouthern Europe20.39771
DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe20.24813
SwedenSWENorthern Europe20.19678
LithuaniaLTUNorthern Europe19.94698

02In 2021

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. Vatican City45.61234
  2. Monaco37.31928
  3. Japan29.21700
  4. Italy23.66197
  5. Portugal23.29087

Lowest

  1. Qatar1.30386
  2. United Arab Emirates1.61923
  3. Zambia1.82696
  4. Chad2.04728
  5. Uganda2.08578

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 7.76312. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032020 → 2021

Since 2020

What changed between 2020 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 222values changed, of 222 in both
  • 198 · 24rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2024 release

    Every year in this series comes from UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 2021.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 222 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

UN DESA Population Division (2021). Population Aged 65 and Over, 2021 [data set], describing 2021. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population-65-plus/2021

0674 held

Other years