There are many ways to classify the population. It can be done by age, by sex, by territories or by levels of study. However, in order to understand the performance of the economy, it is important to distinguish the population into two groups: the active and the inactive population. The first is made up of all those who, of age to be able to work, have a job and also those who do not, that is, the unemployed. For its part, the inactive population is made up of those individuals who, despite having legal age to perform a function, are located outside the labor market, thus comprising: students (with a view to the future), retirees (who already completed a job) or as a pre-retirement nature, and those who have a declared permanent disability (prior to the option of entering the work sector or during, as a result of an accident at a personal or occupational level).
Two concepts that can lead to confusion
If we start from the initial definition, the workforce includes both workers and the unemployed. Therefore, someone who does not have a job but could have one is not part of the inactive population. In this sense, the idea of inactivity applies to those who cannot be active because there are personal circumstances that prevent it.
The importance of data on the inactive population
Suppose that in a country there is an active population of 5 million and an inactive population of 15 million. In this case, there would be a serious social problem, because of the 20 million that make up the population, only 5 work or can work.
The hypothetical example mentioned above serves to illustrate a general idea: that a country's economy depends to a large extent on the appropriate ratio between its active and inactive population. Due to this, there is a specific concept to refer to this social group, the PEI or Economically Inactive Population.
This large sector of the population cannot work for reasons of age and, consequently, is not part of any productive sector. This means, in short, that individuals who are within the working population are the ones who pay taxes to pay the benefits of those who belong to the inactive population (for example, retirement pensions). In other words, the active population is productive and the inactive is dependent.
The dependency ratio is the demographic index that relates both sectors of the population
Statistically, the dependency rate establishes a measurement that reveals the relationship between the dependent sector of society and the productive sector. This index expresses how many minors and elderly there are in relation to the population as a whole.
Photos: Fotolia - petrborn / wallace
