Previous Year Question

A population pyramid represents the age-sex structure of a population. Its broad age classification helps distinguish children, the working-age population and the elderly population.

The 0-14 years age group is regarded as the young dependent population because most people in this age group do not form part of the economically active workforce.

However, an important conceptual clarification is necessary. In the broader demographic definition, dependent population is not confined to ages 0-14. In the traditional Indian Census dependency framework, both ages 0-14 and ages 60 and above are treated as dependent age groups, while ages 15-59 are treated as the working/economically active age group.

In current international demographic indicators, dependents are commonly defined as ages 0-14 plus ages 65 and above, with ages 15-64 treated as the working-age population. The elderly cut-off may therefore differ between statistical frameworks.