Indicator 31: Youth and Population

The percentage of a country's population who are 5-29 years old is an indicator of the potential demand for school enrollments in a country. This percentage also indicates the potential demand placed on national budgets for education funding. Thus, countries with higher proportions of youth tend to have a greater demand for education funding, and changes in the proportion of youth in the population over time tend to parallel trends in the demand for such funding. The percentage is not an exact measure of the proportion of students in a population, however, since some persons aged 5-29 will not be students and some students will be outside this age range. If such variations are considered, the percentage of persons aged 5-14 generally indicates current demand for education services at the primary and middle or junior high level and future demand for higher education services, whereas the percentage of persons aged 15-24 and 25-29 reflects current demand for upper secondary and higher education resources.

• In 1992, 5- to 29-year-olds comprised approximately one-third of the population of all the G-7 countries, including the United States. Of the remaining countries, less than half had a higher proportion of youth in their population than did the United States.

Table 31: Percentage of population 5-29 years of age, by country: 1992

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		  Age groups in population
		  ------------------------
Country		5-29	5-14	15-24	25-29
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G-7
Canada		35	13	13	8
France		36	13	15	8
Germany		32	10	13	9
Italy		35	11	15	8
Japan		35	13	16	6
United Kingdom	35	12	14	8
United States   36      14      14      8
Other
Australia	38	14	16	8
Austria		35	12	15	9
Belgium		33	12	13	8
Czech Republic	37	14	15	7
Denmark		33	11	14	8
Finland		33	13	13	8
Greece		35	13	15	8
Hungary		35	14	15	6
Ireland		43	19	17	7
Netherlands	35	12	15	9
New Zealand	39	15	16	8
Norway		35	12	15	8
Poland		38	17	14	7
Portugal        42      15      18     10
Russia		36	16	13	7
Spain		39	14	17	8
Sweden		32	11	13	7
Switzerland	33	11	13	9
Turkey		50	22	20	8
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SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Center for Educational Research and Innovation, International Indicators Project, 1995.

Figure 31: Percentage of the population 5-29 years of age by G-7 country:* 1992

*Countries are sorted in descending order by the percentage of the population 5-29 years old.

SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Center for Educational Research and Innovation, International Indicators Project, 1995.

[Indicator 30]

[Indicator 32]