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29 March 2024

UAE has world's 3rd best demographic profile

World Social Security Report 2010/11 revealed that around 25.2 per cent of the UAE’s population is either aged above 65 years or below 14 years this year and the ratio is expected to go down to 23.6 per cent in 2030 but rise again to 37 per cent in 2050. (AP)

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By Waheed Abbas

The UAE has the third best demographic profile in the world after Qatar and Macau (China) as a quarter of UAE’s population, which is estimated 4.8 million, is categorized in the non-working age and is dependent on their family members or the government support which is higher than the official estimates for last year, according to a report by International Labour Organisation.

World Social Security Report 2010/11 revealed that around 25.2 per cent of the UAE’s population is either aged above 65 years or below 14 years this year and the ratio is expected to go down to 23.6 per cent in 2030 but rise again to 37 per cent in 2050.

It said total dependency ratio has been constantly on the downward trajectory, falling from 33.1 per cent in 2000 to 26.1 per cent in 2005 and further to 25.2 per cent this year.

It said 1.3 per cent of the population is aged above 65 which would rise to 5.3 per cent in 2030 and 17.9 per cent in 2050. While among the young, the dependency ratio stands at 24 per cent this year, meaning they will be entering the job market in the coming few years and the government has to create opportunities for them .

Qatar has the lowest dependency ratio at 20.5 per cent followed by Macau (China) at 24.8 per cent.

Ministry of Economy figures released earlier this year showed that about 81.9 per cent of the population is aged between 15-59 and 16.8 per cent is aged under 14 while only 1.3 per cent is aged above 60 in 2009.

The ministry report showed that 53 per cent of the UAE population is employed while 19.9 per cent has no desire to work. Employment rate among expatriate workers is 79 per cent while about 45 per cent of UAE nationals are employed. The majority of the unemployed are fresh graduates under the age of 25. Among the emirates, the unemployment rate is lowest in Dubai due to the high level of economic activity.

ILO figures showed that 0.2 per cent of population is aged over 80 in 2010 but will rise to two per cent in 2050.

Saudi Arabia and Oman have the highest the rate of non-working age in the Gulf region, constituting nearly half of their total population.

Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait have non-working age population of 53.6 per cent, 51.5 per cent, 39.3 per cent and 34.5 per cent, respectively.

World Social Security Report 2010/11 revealed that old-age dependent people’s ratio has dropped marginally over the past five years to 1.3 per cent. The ratio of youth population which is dependent on the working population aged between 15-64 fell to 24 per cent this year against 31.7 per cent in 2000 and 24.7 per cent in 2005.