17 Countries Facing An Economy Crushing Demographic Crisis

 

Economies across the developed world are facing the threat of an aging population, increasingly reliant on a shrinking working age population, according to data from the OECD.

While instances such as Japan are well known, the problem is endemic across Europe, with many countries seeing their dependency ratios, that is the amount of workers per retirees, shrink as we approach 2050.

That has the potential to cause serious funding problems for everything from social security, to pensions, to health care across the developed world, and wreak havoc on countries fiscal policies.

We've ranked the OECD countries projected to have the worst dependency ratios by 2050.

Note: We've listed all the countries in the OECD that are worse than the average dependency ratio projected in 2050. Retirees are individuals 65 years an older. Working age people are those age 20 to 64. The 2050 ratios are projections, and could change due to an increase in the birth rate, immigration, or the retirement age.

#17 Iceland

Ratio of working age people to retirees in 2008: 5.1 to 1

Projected ratio in 2050: 2.0 to 1

Source: OECD

#16 Switzerland

Ratio of working age people to retirees in 2008: 3.7 to 1

Projected ratio in 2050: 2.0 to 1

Source: OECD

#15 Finland

Ratio of working age people to retirees in 2008: 3.7 to 1

Projected ratio in 2050: 2.0 to 1

Source: OECD

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