Which countries have the largest share of older residents?

Full country ranking

Value: % of population aged 65 and over. The table is shown in its published rank order. Rank always refers to the published highest-first order; exact source ties share a rank.

What the data means

29 covered countries have at least one resident in five aged 65 or over. This is the share of older residents, not median age. Different retirement ages and labour-force participation mean it cannot be read as the share of pensioners or as a retirement destination score.

Methodology, source and licence

One common observation year (2024) across all entries. Starting at 2024, choose the newest common year with at least 10 existing country guides and at least 70% of world population represented. Regional aggregates and places without an existing country guide or same-year population are excluded; missing observations are never estimated. Rates, percentages and values already expressed per person are not divided by population again. Exact source ties share a rank; country names break ties in display order. The 2026 label is the publication edition, not the observation year.

Source definition: Population ages 65 and above as a percentage of the total population. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.

Original providers: World Population Prospects, United Nations (UN), publisher: UN Population Division

Source: World Bank — World Development Indicators — SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-18. GooferPlaces selected eligible countries, sorted observations, rounded display values and, where stated, calculated population-normalised values. The source organisations do not endorse these rankings.

Download the observations and methodology (JSON). The dated source snapshot is retained as data/rankings/world-bank-wdi/2026-10-18.json. The country universe comprises the 197 existing country guides; territories without a guide and regional aggregates are excluded. Population coverage uses the World Bank world aggregate for the observation year, including places not listed in the table.

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