Retirement age differs in European countries and is a matter of debate across Europe because of an aging population.
Country | Men | Women | Year | Notes | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Albania | 65 | 61 | 2020 | [1] | |
Austria | 65 | 60 | 2018 | In Austria the retirement age for women is to be equalized to the retirement age for men (65) by 2033. [2] | [1] [3] |
Belarus | 62.5 | 57.5 | 2021 | By 2022, the age will be 63 for men and 58 for women. [4] | [5] |
Belgium | 66 | 66 | 2025 | In Belgium the retirement age is to be increased gradually to 67 years by 2030. [2] | [5] [5] "SFPD".</ref> |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 65 | 65 | 2024 | [1] | |
Bulgaria | 64 (and 7 months) | 62 (and 2 months) | 2024 | In Bulgaria the retirement age for women is to be equalized to the retirement age for men (65) by 2037. | [2] |
Croatia | 65 | 63 (and 6 months) | 2024 | In Croatia the retirement age for women is to be equalized to the retirement age for men (65) by 2030. | [2] |
Cyprus | 65 | 65 | 2018 | [1] [3] | |
Czech Republic | 63 (and 4 months) | 58 (and 8 months) – 62 (and 8 months) | 2018 | In the Czech Republic, in the year 2015, men had the retirement age of 62 years and 10 months and women had it between 58 and 62, depending on number of children. [6] [7] In Czech Republic, the retirement age is in the process of being increased, and therefore depends on year of birth (for individuals born after 1977 it may exceed even 67. e.g. a person born in year 1995 must be at least 70 years old. [8] ) For women the retirement age depends on the number of raised children as well. [9] For people born in 1975, the retirement age will be the same (66y8m) regardless of sex and number of children raised; and this age will reach 67 for people born in 1977. | [7] |
Denmark | 67 | 67 | 2022 | In Denmark, the retirement age will be increased gradually to reach 67 years by 2022. From 2030 onwards, it will be increased a maximum of one year every five years depending on increases in average lifespan. [10] [11] See also: Pensions in Denmark. | [3] [5] |
Estonia | 63 (and 9 months) | 63 (and 9 months) | 2019 | In Estonia the retirement age is to be increased gradually to 65 years by 2026. [12] After 2026 it will be linked to the average life expectancy. | [3] [5] |
Finland | 65 | 65 | 2008 | [3] | |
France | 62 to 67 | 62 to 67 | 2022 | Depends on the duration of contribution (minimum 43 years) | |
Germany | 65 (and 7 months) | 65 (and 7 months) | 2015 | In Germany the retirement age is to be increased gradually and reach 67 years by 2029. See also: Pensions in Germany. | [3] [5] |
Greece | 67 | 67 | 2015 | [2] | |
Hungary | 65 | 65 | 2022 | Women with 40 years of insurance can retire at any age. [2] | [2] |
Iceland | 67 | 67 | 2018 | [5] | |
Ireland | 66 | 66 | 2024 | In Ireland there is no general mandatory retirement age although some jobs, such as jobs in law enforcement or firefighting, may be subject to a statutory retirement age. Employers may define their own retirement age but the state pension is not available to those younger than 66. The longer an individual postpones withdrawing the pension, the greater the weekly state pension payment, up to age 70. [13] | |
Italy | 67 | 67 | 2019 | Must have paid contributions for at least 20 years. Those who have paid contributions for at least 38 years can retire at 64. [14] Those who have paid contributions for at least 41 years and 10 months (women) or 42 years and 10 months (men) can retire regardless of age. | [15] |
Latvia | 64 (and 6 months) | 64 (and 6 months) | 2023 | The age will be 65 by 2025. [2] | [2] |
Liechtenstein | 65 | 65 | 2018 | [5] | |
Lithuania | 64 (and 6 months) | 64 | 2023 | In Lithuania, the retirement age will be 65 for both men and women by 2026. [2] | [2] [16] |
Luxembourg | 65 | 65 | 2018 | [1] | |
Malta | 62 | 62 | 2015 | In Malta the retirement age is to be increased gradually to 65 years by 2027. [2] | [2] |
Moldova | 63 | 59 | 2020 | Retirement age for women is increasing every 6 months until it reaches 63 years in 2028. | [1] |
Montenegro | 66 | 64 | 2022 | [1] | |
Netherlands | 67 | 67 | 2024 | In the Netherlands the retirement age is 68 years old. The state pension for all elderly is being increased gradually and in 2028 the state pension age will be raised again, to 67 years and 3 months. For men and women born after January 1st, 1999 the expected retirement age is 70 years old. [17] After 2022 it is linked to the average life expectancy. | [1] [3] [18] |
North Macedonia | 64 | 62 | 2011 | [1] | |
Norway | 67 | 67 | 2018 | See also: Pensions in Norway The general retirement age is currently set to age 67, however, given sufficient pension contributions it is possible to retire as early as at age 62. The longer an individual postpones withdrawing a pension, the greater the government pension provision becomes. | |
Poland | 65 | 60 | 2016 | ||
Portugal | 66 (and 4 months) | 66 (and 4 months) | 2018 | [19] | |
Romania | 65 | 61 | 2019 | The age for women is being increased gradually. It will reach 63 by 2030. [20] | [21] |
Serbia | 65 | 63 (and 8 months) | 2024 | By the year of 2032 retirement age for women will equalize with men and reach 65. Also it is possible to gain pension after 45 years of labour if that happens prior to 66th year of life for men or aged 61 years and 6 months for women. It would be at least 60 for both men and women, considering the fact that person is legally labour-eligible aged 15 in Serbia. [22] | [1] |
Slovakia | 64 | 64 | 2021 | [23] | |
Slovenia | 65 | 65 | 2018 | [2] | |
Spain | 65 (and 3 months) | 65 (and 3 months) | 2015 | The age will be 67 by 2027. [2] See also: Pensions in Spain. | [1] [3] |
Sweden | 66 | 66 | 2020, options age 62–68. | By 2026 it will be 67, with options age 64-69. | |
Switzerland | 65 | 64 | 2022 | [24] [25] [26] | |
Ukraine | 60 | 60 | 2022 | ||
United Kingdom | 66 | 66 | 2021 | The retirement age is due to be increased to 67 by 2028 and 68 by 2046. See also: Pensions in the United Kingdom. | [27] |
Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload.
A pension is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be:
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the world's largest public pension fund. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold about USD$6 trillion in assets. In 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that pension funds worldwide hold over $33.9 trillion in assets, the largest for any category of institutional investor ahead of mutual funds, insurance companies, currency reserves, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, or private equity.
Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological stage: the chronological age denoted as "old age" varies culturally and historically. Some disciplines and domains focus on the aging and the aged, such as the organic processes of aging (senescence), medical studies of the aging process (gerontology), diseases that afflict older adults (geriatrics), technology to support the aging society (gerontechnology), and leisure and sport activities adapted to older people.
A disability pension is a form of pension given to those people who are permanently or temporarily unable to work due to a disability.
The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force and those typically in the labor force. It is used to measure the pressure on the productive population.
Population ageing is an increasing median age in a population because of declining fertility rates and rising life expectancy. Most countries have rising life expectancy and an ageing population, trends that emerged first in developed countries but are now seen in virtually all developing countries. In most developed countries, the phenomenon of population aging began to gradually emerge in the late 19th century. The aging of the world population occurred in the late 20th century, with the proportion of people aged 65 and above accounting for 6% of the total population. This reflects the overall decline in the world's fertility rate at that time. That is the case for every country in the world except the 18 countries designated as "demographic outliers" by the United Nations. The aged population is currently at its highest level in human history. The UN predicts the rate of population ageing in the 21st century will exceed that of the previous century. The number of people aged 60 years and over has tripled since 1950 and reached 600 million in 2000 and surpassed 700 million in 2006. It is projected that the combined senior and geriatric population will reach 2.1 billion by 2050. Countries vary significantly in terms of the degree and pace of ageing, and the UN expects populations that began ageing later will have less time to adapt to its implications.
This article lists the statutory retirement age in different countries. In some contexts, the retirement age is the age at which a person is expected or required to cease work. It is usually the age at which such a person may be entitled to receive superannuation or other government benefits, like a state pension.
The pensions crisis or pensions timebomb is the predicted difficulty in paying for corporate or government employment retirement pensions in various countries, due to a difference between pension obligations and the resources set aside to fund them. The basic difficulty of the pension problem is that institutions must be sustained over far longer than the political planning horizon. Shifting demographics are causing a lower ratio of workers per retiree; contributing factors include retirees living longer, and lower birth rates. An international comparison of pension institution by countries is important to solve the pension crisis problem. There is significant debate regarding the magnitude and importance of the problem, as well as the solutions. One aspect and challenge of the "Pension timebomb" is that several countries' governments have a constitutional obligation to provide public services to its citizens, but the funding of these programs, such as healthcare are at a lack of funding, especially after the 2008 recession and the strain caused on the dependency ratio by an ageing population and a shrinking workforce, which increases costs of elderly care.
The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of Americans over age 50 conducted by the Survey Research Center (SRC) at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The study interviews approximately 20,000 respondents every two years on subjects like health care, housing, assets, pensions, employment and disability. The study is managed through a cooperative agreement between the NIA, which provides primary funding, and the ISR, which administers and conducts the survey. Beginning in 2012, HRS began adding genetic information from consenting participants to its database. The economic measures captured by the data in the HRS are regarded as being of very high quality.
The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel database of micro data on health, socio-economic status and social and family networks. In seven survey waves to date, SHARE has conducted approximately 380,000 interviews with about 140,000 individuals aged 50 and over. The survey covers 28 European countries and Israel.
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Defined benefit (DB) pension plan is a type of pension plan in which an employer/sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump-sum, or combination thereof on retirement that depends on an employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns. Traditionally, many governmental and public entities, as well as a large number of corporations, provide defined benefit plans, sometimes as a means of compensating workers in lieu of increased pay.
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Bernd Marin is an Austrian social scientist.
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