a) Total population by country, broken down by sex and age.
b) Old-age-dependency ratio
Calculation
a) The number of usual resident inhabitants of a given area on 1 January of the year in question (absolute numbers).
b) The ratio between the total number of elderly persons of an age when they are generally economically inactive (aged 65 and over) and the number of persons of working age (from 15 to 64).
Relevant dimensions and subgroups
For definition a:
Calendar year
Country
Region (according to ISARE recommendations)
Sex
Age group (0-14, 15-24, 25-49, 50-64, 65-79 and 80+)
For definition b:
Calendar year
Country
Preferred data type and data source
Preferred data type
national population censuses or population registers
Preferred data source
Eurostat (for both definition a and b)
Data availability
Basic demographic data, available for all MSs. National data are available by sex and 1 and 5-years age groups and for the preferred age groups mentioned above under ‘relevant dimensions and subgroups’. Regional data are available at NUTS 2 level by sex and age (1 and 5-years age groups, however not by the preferred age groups mentioned above). At NUTS 3 level data are available by sex and broad age groups (less than 15 years, between 15 and 64 years and 65 years and over), but only for 2007 and 2008.
Data periodicity
Data are updated annually.
Rationale
Basic demographic data are important by itself and are required for the calculation of many of the other indicators (denominator for rates and ratios). Age structure is also essential for public health planning and scenarios.
Remarks
Population data are collected by Eurostat from the National Statistical Offices. National annual estimates of the population can be based on data from the most recent census adjusted by the components of population change produced since the last census, or based on population registers. For 8 EU countries, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, determination of the population size is based on population-register data only. 18 EU countries use census data only. Lithuania and Switzerland use both (see reference 2).
The total population may comprise either all usual residents of the country (de jure population) or all persons present (de facto population) in the country at a given moment in time. Usual residents are those who have lived in their place of usual residence for a continuous period of at least 12 months before the reference date or those who arrived in their place of usual residence during the 12 months before the reference date with the intention of staying there for at least one year. The Eurostat statistics on population refer to the national and regional population at its usual residence.
Eurostat requests from all countries demographic statistics based on the concept of usual resident population. All countries that carry out traditional population censuses count on the basis of the de jure population concept. It can be assumed that population registers also only include residents who usually live in the country (= de jure population). However in practice, countries may encounter problems when attempting to accurately determine the population size according to the de jure concept. For instance births and deaths of residents abroad are not always taken into account, while in a number of cases births and deaths to non-residents in the country itself are included in statistics.
Definition
