11 Countries With Highest Aging Population

5. The Virgin Islands

Median age: 44.9 years

The Virgin Islands, which occupy the area of twice the size of Washington DC, has a population of 103,574, out of which 19.46 percent are citizens older than 65 years. According to Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, the country faced rapid population decline since 1960 when 46 percent of the total population was younger than 18 years old. In 2010, the number of residents below 18 years was 25 percent. The decline was most evident in the period between 2000 and 2010, when the percentage of the population younger than 18 fell 21 percent. There are two reasons behind the statistics. First, a great number of young people has permanently left the Virgin Islands in search for better education and employment opportunities. Secondly, fertility rate dropped in last twenty years – whereas, in 1990, about 17 percent of women had five or more children, in 2010 the percent of women with more than five children was 8.