OECD factbook 2006

"How does France compare with other EU countries in terms of growth in labour productivity? Where does Japan rank versus the other major developed countries in public spending on health? People and politicians want to know how their countries and regions are performing. The OECD’s Factbook is designed to help them."

As a researcher of any kind you rely on the empirical you create or have access to. To that end the OECD factbook is always a good place to start.  

For example the ressources on the ageing population. 

"Long-term trends

The youngest populations (low shares of population aged 65 or over) are either in countries with high birth rates such as Mexico, Iceland and Turkey or in countries with high immigration, such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. All these countries will, however, experience significant ageing up to 2020.

The dependency ratio (right panel of the table) is projected to exceed 50% in Hungary, France, Italy and Japan by 2020. This means that, for each elderly person, there will be only two persons in the labour force. The lowest dependency ratios, under 30%, are projected for Mexico, Iceland, Turkey and Ireland.

Over the period from 2000 to 2020, dependency ratios are forecast to rise particularly sharply in the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, Korea and Turkey; growth of dependency ratios will be lowest in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain." 

or labor productivity;

"Long-term trends

The youngest populations (low shares of population aged 65 or over) are either in countries with high birth rates such as Mexico, Iceland and Turkey or in countries with high immigration, such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. All these countries will, however, experience significant ageing up to 2020.

The dependency ratio (right panel of the table) is projected to exceed 50% in Hungary, France, Italy and Japan by 2020. This means that, for each elderly person, there will be only two persons in the labour force. The lowest dependency ratios, under 30%, are projected for Mexico, Iceland, Turkey and Ireland.

Over the period from 2000 to 2020, dependency ratios are forecast to rise particularly sharply in the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, Korea and Turkey; growth of dependency ratios will be lowest in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain." 

The OECD is truly a hub for relevant statistics and crucially "easy to read" charts and numbers, so be sure to bookmark it for later reference.