In 2020, a total of 61,000 persons retired on an earnings-related pension. Of them, 42,000 retired on an old-age pension. A slight majority of them were women.  

The number of new retirees on an old-age pension decreased again by an ample 2,000 persons (or 5%) compared to the previous year. The declining trend is due to the 2017 pension reform which raises the retirement age gradually. 

Nearly half (48%) of all new retirees on an old-age pension retired at age 63. The average retirement age was 64.3 years.  

“As a result of the pension reform, the number of people retiring at age 63 has declined. An increasing number of persons retire at age 64 or later,” says statistics manager Tiina Palotie-Heino (Finnish Centre for Pensions).  

More than half of old-age pension recipients aged under 75 

More than 1.5 million persons drew an earnings-related pension at the end of 2020. Of them, 1.3 million received an old-age pension.  

Every fourth of them, or a total of 350,000 persons, are baby boomers (aged 70–74). More than half of the old-age pension recipients are less than 75 years.  

The gender gap in life length is evident when reviewing the older age groups. More than 60 per cent of the 85–89-year-old earnings-related pension recipients are women. The share of women of those aged over 90 is as high as 70 per cent.  

“The large number of older retired women is explained by the fact that, on average, women live clearly longer than men,” Palotie-Heino explains. 

Earnings-related pension expenditure up by €800 million 

In 2020, a total of 33 billion euros were paid in pensions in Finland. Earnings-related pensions accounted for nearly 30 billion euros. 

The earnings-related pension expenditure was up by 800 million euros, or three per cent, compared to in 2019. 

Of the earnings-related pensions paid, old-age pensions accounted for 88 per cent, disability pensions for 6 per cent and survivors’ pensions for 6 per cent. 

Photo: Katri Lehtelä