Use and interpret Economic Dependency Ratios

Economic Dependency Ratios provide quick and useful measures to better understand an area’s relationship between workers and non-workers.

Esri's Data Development team produces demographic data (known as Updated Demographics) for the United States using a variety of sources to update small areas, beginning with the latest U.S. Census base along with a mixture of other private sources to capture demographic change. Alongside Updated Demographics, Esri provides U.S. Census Bureau and American Community Survey (ACS) demographics as a point of reference for understanding growth in an area and to provide additional community details. Data tutorials educate both the novice and the expert analyst to learn more about a topic to properly incorporate Esri Demographics that are accessible within various products. In this tutorial, you will learn about the following:

  • What Economic Dependency variables are and how they are defined
  • Why the data can be useful in your work
  • How to use and interpret the data using a business scenario
  • Important data considerations
  • Additional resources

First, you'll learn what Economic Dependency Ratios are and why using them can provide valuable insight for analysts.


Economic Dependency Ratios

The Economic Dependency Ratio (EDR) measures the relationship between non-workers and the employed population. Non-workers include children, the unemployed population, and those that are not in the labor force (i.e., individuals that are not working or actively searching for work). Children are defined as the population under 16 years of age. 

Economic Dependency Ratios can be used to measure the financial pressure on the working population of a community or the potential for more individuals to enter the workforce as they age and/or labor force dynamics shift. The higher the ratio, the more non-workers there are relative to the number of workers.


Why use Economic Dependency data

Having the ability to identify dependent populations is critical for governments, businesses, and any other establishment or organization which benefit from understanding the impacts of population and labor force change. Areas that have proportionally low rates of employment can point to financial support imbalances where fewer employed individuals are supporting local education facilities, community centers, and other resources which may not be a sufficient condition for long run sustainability.

Here's what you can quickly learn from mapping U.S. Economic Dependency Ratios:

U.S. Economic Dependency

This map image shows the current year county EDR for the contiguous U.S. (indexed around the U.S. EDR value of 110.2)

U.S. Economic Dependency

Areas that experience high EDRs, shaded in orange, are located along the southern and western parts of the country.

Economic Dependency data calculations

In addition to the overall Economic Dependency Ratio (EDR), Esri’s data team developed three other ratios that disaggregate the EDR into component age groups. This offers a more detailed view to determine the portions of dependency that come from particular sub-populations. Using Esri’s annual updated demographics here’s how all four ratios are calculated: 

Economic Dependency Ratio Formula (EDR)

Child Economic Dependency Ratio Formula (CEDR)

Working-Age Economic Dependency Ratio Formula (WEDR)

Senior Economic Dependency Ratio Formula (SEDR) 

All Economic Dependency Ratios are multiplied by 100.


Data access

You can access Esri Demographics using Esri software and through apps like ArcGIS  Business Analyst ,   ArcGIS for Excel , or ready to use maps from  ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World . For use outside of the Esri platform data files are available in CSV, dBase, Excel, shapefile, or file geodatabase formats.

Contact an Esri data sales specialist with data questions at 800-447-9778 or send an email with your request to: datasales@esri.com


How to use and interpret Economic Dependency Ratios

Economic Dependency Ratios provide you with the ability to gain insights into not only where areas may be experiencing high levels of economic burden or untapped potential, but how this dependency varies by age group. The U.S. EDR is 110.2 for 2021, or roughly 110 dependents for every 100 workers. Likewise, the U.S. CEDR , SEDR, and WEDR are 41.1, 29.4, and 39.7, respectively.

Although, as these values indicate, children make up the largest share of dependents and seniors make up the smallest share, this can vary significantly depending on the area of the nation under examination. Mapping this data, as shown in the map image below, can highlight the relationship map between the CEDR and SEDR dependency measures in counties throughout the U.S.

Esri's relationship map using the CEDR and SEDR helps show where and what type of economic burden is impacting an area.


To demonstrate a typical example of when utilizing Economic Dependency Ratios can be beneficial, let’s look at a 'What if' business scenario in Cache County, Utah.

Local leaders in an area want to better understand the potential needs in their community from an economic sustainability perspective. Which measures should be used and where is the best place to start?

One of the best ways to get information about an area is to run the Civilian Labor Force Profile report. This 1-page profile provides a comprehensive view to understand an area’s economic landscape, including employment by age, industry/occupation statistics, and a variety of measures, including the EDR.

Using the ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App, a Civilian Labor Force Profile report is generated for Cache County, Utah. Let’s focus on the EDR variables to help you interpret the data so you can gain a better understanding of what the numbers mean and how these numbers can affect your decision-making process.

What you learn

From the report we learn the Cache County's EDR (114.6) is slightly above the national value (110.2), indicating a higher share of dependency relative to the workforce in this area compared to the country as a whole. It is also higher than Utah, in general (108.2).

The largest component of the EDR is the CEDR (59.4, representing 51.8% of the county’s total EDR), which may indicate a need to plan for and concentrate resources on these children eventually entering the workforce as they age (the children can be thought of as potential future workers in the area for planning purposes). This high CEDR value matches the statewide trend (Utah CEDR = 57.0, 52.7%).

The WEDR (37.7) and SEDR (17.5) are both lower than the U.S. values (39.7 and 29.4, respectively), indicating lower levels of dependency from those two groups, but the county's WEDR is a bit higher than the state of Utah’s (32.4).


A crucial next step of the analysis is to map the WEDR measure at the census tract level to better understand how these measures vary by community or neighborhood.

This map of Cache County by Census Tract (map image shown right) highlights where the highest WEDR values are spatially located. Tracts shaded blue have WEDRs lower than the county estimate of 37.7 whereas tracts shaded orange have higher values. For instance, the area west of Logan's city center (tract 49005000701) has a WEDR of 57.4.

Analyzing the data at a more geographically granular view within the city center, we discover that Census Tract 49005000702 (highlighted by a light blue border) is home to Utah State University and student housing complexes. 

This tract's high EDR and WEDR values of 117.6 and 97.0 are due to full-time college students typically not working or looking for work as much as the general working-age population (i.e., relatively low rates of labor force participation among college students)This is one of the contributing factors to the county having a higher WEDR than the state.

An area’s demographic composition, while a critical element in the analysis, is just one of many components that should be considered. Measures such as Economic Dependency Ratios are valuable tools for quickly identifying where there may be more dependency upon workers in an area. This data also adds comparative insight by highlighting which population cohorts (e.g., children, the working-aged, or seniors) have higher shares of dependency within an area.

As shown, Economic Dependency Ratios can be accessed through a number of Esri tools that each provide a different unique look at the data. This example also shows how facets of the local area, such as the presence of a university or senior living center, can interact with the study area's labor force dynamics to influence the level of economic dependency that is present.


Data review and considerations

Unlike the ADR, EDRs account for the employment status of the population. This can result in the EDR calculation containing portions of the working-age (aged 16 to 64) and senior (aged 65 and above) populations in both the numerator and denominator of the calculation, depending on the age-specific labor force composition within a study area.

Economic Dependency Ratios excludes certain subsets of the population that are not part of Esri’s annually-updated civilian labor force database, such as prisoners and the Armed Forces population.

Three groups (child, working-age, senior) sum to the total EDR. This is necessary to account for economic dependents (unemployed, not in the labor force) within the population aged 16 to 64. 

The cutoff between the child and working-age groups is age 16 for the EDR. This is the legal minimum age of persons able to work unlimited hours in most occupations within the U.S. 

Like all Civilian Labor Force data, the EDR is available for only the current year.


Next steps

In this tutorial, you learned about the basics of Economic Dependency Ratios, how to interpret the data, and the significant impact it has on businesses. Additional data tutorials in two series are available. Click the links below for continued data exploration, learning, and ways to access the data.


Learn more

Data methodologies

Economic Dependency Ratios data estimates are developed using Esri’s estimates and forecasts of age and labor force from  the Esri U.S. Updated Demographics portfolio.   Represented as point-in-time estimates as of July 1, the data is available for Esri’s standard geographic areas and for any user-defined polygon such as a ring or drive time.  Read the Esri Dependency Ratios Methodology Statement for more information 

Frequently asked questions

Use our   data reference page   to help answer additional questions about Esri Demographics.

Helpful links


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If you have a topic you would like covered in a data tutorial to help you better understand U.S. data, send us an e-mail with your topic idea.

About this story

This story was created by Donna Fancher in collaboration with the Esri Data Development team. To start working with the U.S. data collection, visit the   Esri Location Data Resources   page.

Led by chief demographer Kyle Cassal and economist Douglas Skuta, Esri's Data Development team uses sophisticated quantitative methods to produce small area demographic and socioeconomic data to support informed decision-making. The team builds on a rich history of market intelligence to produce trusted independent estimates and forecasts for the United States based on innovative methodologies that use public and private data sources with the power of ArcGIS. Esri's Data Development team provides more than 7,000 proprietary data items to better understand the characteristics of people and places across multiple statistical and administrative boundaries and custom trade areas.

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Esri's relationship map using the CEDR and SEDR helps show where and what type of economic burden is impacting an area.