Prime
Ugandan workers burdened by high dependency ratios

Because Uganda has one of the youngest populations, it places a heavy burden on those in employment. PHOTO / FILE
What you need to know:
- Ubos indicates that the dependency ratio in 2024 stood at 83.8 percent, meaning that for every 100 working-age persons, there were 84 age-dependent persons
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) says that whereas age dependence has reduced over the years, the burden shouldered by working Ugandans remains high.
In details contained in the final National Household and Population Census report, Ubos said that the dependency ratio, which comprises persons aged zero to 14 and 65 plus years, in 2024 stood at 83.8 percent, meaning that for every 100 working persons there were 84 dependants.
This was lower than six years ago, in which, according to the Annual Labour Force Survey 2017/18, the ratio stood at 96 per 100 persons aged between 14 and 64 years in June 2018 and 100 in June 2017.
The ratio, even as it has reduced, is, however, higher than the 58.49 percent global average measured among 196 countries across the world.
The report further shows that 78 out of the 84 dependants are children, which suggests that a significant portion of Ugandans is unproductive, while 6.1 are older persons.
A low dependency ratio is desirable because it denotes a healthy economic environment, in which the working-age population can easily support dependants.
Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world, with more than half of the country’s 48.58 million people under 18 years, which explains the high dependency ratio, worsened by low job opportunities.
Uganda also has one of the highest ratios of age-dependants across the globe, with World Bank ranking the country 11th among top 20 countries.
At 104.73 percent, Niger has the highest age-dependent ratios across the world followed by CA Republic at 101.45 percent, Somalia (98.44 percent), DR Congo (97.61 percent), Chad (97.47 percent) and Mali (97.27 percent). United Arab Emirates has the lowest ratio at 20.6 percent.
Other countries with higher ratios include Monaco (96.29 percent), Burundi (91 percent), Angola (90.23 percent) and Tanzania (85.92 percent).
Ubos further noted that the proportion of working-age Ugandans between 15 and 64 years stood at 37.9 percent indicating that about four in 10 persons were employed, with men having a higher employment portion of 43.8 percent compared to 33.1 percent for women.
Employment was higher (42.6 percent) in urban areas compared to 34.9 percent in rural areas, while disaggregation of the employed population by education showed that majority of those who had attained post-secondary and above were employed (65.8 percent) compared to 31.3 percent for those with no formal education.
The report further shows that persons aged between 14 and 64 years in Kampala had the highest employment ratio of 53.5 percent, while Madi, in West Nile had the lowest at 19.7 percent.
Unemployment stood at 12.3 percent, which represents 1.4 million people, of which unemployed women stood at 14.2 percent compared to 10.5 percent for men.
Bukedi and Madi sub-regions have the highest unemployment rates of 19 percent each, while Ankole has the lowest at 8.2 percent.
However, the report noted that at least 50 percent of persons who have been unemployed for a year or more, were seeking employment, majority of whom (63 percent) were from Bukedi, while Tororo, at 43.7 percent, had the lowest number of job seekers.
Ubos further noted that 48.8 percent of the unemployed youth aged between 18 and 30 years were looking for work or had been trying to start a business for over a year.
Searching for jobs
According to Ubos, persons not in employment who expressed interest in working but for whom existing conditions limit either their active job search or their availability to work were 14.2 percent representing a population of 1.8m with women standing at 16.8 percent compared to 11.5 percent for men.