Median age
The median age is the median age of the individuals in a population . It is therefore the age that the observed group divides in such a way that at most 50% of its members are younger and at most 50% older than this age. It is used as a metric to measure the aging of the population e.g. B. to describe a state.
The median age is usually not the same as the median or average age. The average age is the arithmetic mean of the ages observed in a sample. The median age does not change over time as quickly as the median age, so that medium and long-term trends become visible.
In a family consisting of a father (age 37), mother (36) and child (2), the median age of the family is 36 (2, 36 , 37). The median age ( arithmetic mean ) would only be years.
The median age of the world population in 2015 was 29.9 years. In the German-speaking countries it was for
- Germany: at 46.5 years (the third highest value after Monaco and Japan),
- Austria: at 43.6 years (eleventh place),
- Switzerland: at 42.1 years (23rd place) out of 235 countries.
In a world comparison, the median age is
- 42.5 years in the European Union,
- in the Russian Federation 39.1 years,
- 37.8 years in the United States,
- in China 36.8 years,
- in Brazil 31.1 years, and
- in India 27.3 years.
