Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory located in the Lesser Antilles in the Eastern Caribbean. It has an area of 102 km2. The island is composed almost exclusively of volcanic rock and is primarily mountainous, with a small coastal plain.
In 2000 the total population of Montserrat was 5 138 inhabitants; by 2023 this figure had risen to 4 386, representing a 14.6% decrease. Regarding the country’s demographic profile, in 2023 people over 65 years of age accounted for 18.1% of the total population, an increase of 3.8 percentage points compared to the year 2000. In 2023, there were 90 women per 100 men and 144.7 older people (65 years or older) per 100 children under 15 years of age, as can be seen in the country’s population pyramids, distributed by age group and sex (Figure 1). Considering the population between 15 and 64 years of age to be potentially active (i.e., potential participants in the labor force), this group represented 69.5% of the total population of the country in 2023 (3 047 people). When we add these figures to the potentially passive population (548 under 15 years of age and 792 over 65 years of age), the result is a dependency ratio of 44 potentially passive people per 100 potentially active people. This ratio was 51.2 in 2000.
Life expectancy at birth in 2023 was 76.0 years, lower than the average for the Region of the Americas and 1.4 years higher that in 2000.
