If child dependency is continuously declining in a country but total dependency remains stable, which change best explains this pattern?

Correct answer: Old-age dependency is rising

Total dependency is made up of child dependency and old-age dependency. Therefore, if the child component keeps falling but the total remains stable, another dependent component must be increasing enough to offset that fall. In this age-structure context, the other component is elderly dependency.

For example, if child dependency falls by five percentage points and old-age dependency rises by five percentage points, their total can remain unchanged. The working-age population is not necessarily disappearing, and a declining child share cannot mean that children are rapidly increasing. Hence, rising old-age dependency best explains the pattern, so option A is correct.