In the EU-28 countries, the dependency rate has reached an average of 30.5% in 2018 compared to 25.5% for the year 2008. However, the figures vary considerably among the member states of the European Union, with countries like Italy, Finland and Greece that are close to 35% and others that close the classification around 21%.
The country with the highest proportion of people over 65 is Italy with 35.2%, with Finland and Greece next, both above 34%, while Portugal and Germany are already around 33%. Sweden and France are, together with Latvia, above 31%, while Croatia and Estonia also exceed the European average.
Seventeen EU countries remain below average. In Spain the proportion of older people, dependent on the working-age population, has reached 29.2% in 2018. The figure has been increasing during the last years, since in 2008 we were still at 23,8%. Belgium and the Netherlands have a similar rate to the Spanish. Rates are already below 25% in Cyprus and Slovakia, with Ireland and Luxembourg being the two countries with the lowest figures in the EU-28.
