According to data from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), while in the 1950s Europe had an average of almost seven people of working age (between 20 and 64) for every pensioner, this proportion will be less than two workers per pensioner in 2050.
This aging of the population can cause a collapse in the pension system, which is why several European countries in recent years have decided to reform their pension systems.
This is the case in Spain where the retirement age will rise to 67, like Germany, Italy or Denmark, in the case of the United Kingdom the threshold is 66. In France the legal age is 62 and now they intend to delay it until 64 and go from 40 to 42 years of contributions.
In reality, as there are other factors involved, such as years of contribution, for example, the average age varies from the legal age. For example, the French leave the labor market at an average age of 62.3 years, according to the latest data from the European Commission (2019).
In the European Union, only the citizens of four small countries leave first. Luxembourgers retire the earliest, with an average of 60.2 years.
France is a long way from Italy, the European Union country where workers request their pension later (65.5 years), but also from Germany (64.6 years), Portugal (64.3 years) or Spain (64 ,2 years). On average, EU citizens retire at 63.8 years of age, according to data from the European Commission.
In most EU countries, women retire earlier than men. Spain, Italy and Belgium are rare exceptions. In France, the difference is minimal: women retire at 62.2 years, compared to 62.3 years for men.
Comparing the European retirement systems is quite complicated because it is not enough to look at the legal age to collect the retirement pension. You also have to look, for example, at the years that you have to contribute to receive a full pension, the percentage that is collected from the salary and also the special regimes that certain workers have employed in sectors where the tasks are harder.
On average, French retirees receive a pension equivalent to 54.4% of their last salary, according to the Commission. They are better off than the average EU pensioner, who receives 46.2%, or their German counterparts, who receive an average of 39.8% of their old salary.
