In Germany you retire at 66 or soon even at 67, much later than in neighboring countries.
Or?
How do the Germans really fare in an international comparison?
Berlin – Do Germans really retire later than in other countries?
In France, when the masses take to the streets against raising the retirement age to 64, that might seem like it.
But appearances are deceptive: Germans like to retire early – earlier than in many other countries in the world.
retirement age in other countries
The pension systems are structured very differently in all countries that can be easily compared with Germany.
It is therefore difficult to compare data and facts.
So when they say in France that the regular retirement age is currently 62, that is only part of the truth.
In France, to retire at 62, the worker must have completed 41.5 years of contributions.
So if you started paying into the pension fund at the age of 20, you can stop working at 62.
If you want to receive a pension without deductions in France without reaching 41.5 years of contributions, you have to wait until 67 – just like in Germany, or in this country, you can currently retire a year earlier without deductions.
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Retirement in Europe: when do people retire in other countries?
© Jens Büttner/dpa
In order to make the pension systems in Europe, Japan and Canada comparable, Der
Spiegel
compared the various retirement ages based on figures from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD).
A person who started paying into the pension fund for the first time at the age of 22 and was then continuously insured served as an example for the regular pension:
country | early retirement | regular pension |
|---|---|---|
Denmark | from 60 | from 65 |
Germany | from 63 | from 66 |
Finland | from 63 | from 65 |
France | from 62 | from 64 |
Great Britain | no | from 66 |
Italy | no | from 62 |
Japan | from 60 | from 65 |
Canada | from 60 | from 65 |
Netherlands | no | from 66 |
Norway | from 62 | from 67 |
Austria (women) | no | from 60 |
Austria (men) | from 62 | from 65 |
Poland (men) | no | from 65 |
Poland (women) | no | from 60 |
Sweden | from 62 | from 65 |
Switzerland (women) | from 58 | from 64 |
Switzerland (men) | from 58 | from 65 |
Spain | from 63 | from 65 |
It is clear from the table that, on average, Germans really do retire later.
The average retirement age internationally is 64.4 years.
The table also shows that early retirement is not provided for at all in several countries for those who have been insured for a particularly long time.
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Retirement: Large differences between intended age and reality
So much for the retirement ages without deductions.
Of course, there is also the option of accepting deductions and then retiring earlier.
And many people in Germany make use of this, so that the average age at which Germans actually retire is much lower.
Here, too, Der
Spiegel
used data from the OECD for the analysis:
country | average retirement age |
|---|---|
Denmark | ~ 64 |
Germany | ~ 63 |
Finland | ~ 63-64 |
France | ~ 60-61 |
Great Britain | ~ 63-64 |
Italy | ~ 61-62 |
Japan | ~ 68 |
Canada | ~ 63-64 |
Netherlands | ~ 63-64 |
Norway | ~ 63-65 |
Austria | ~ 61-62 |
Poland | ~ 60-62 |
Sweden | ~ 65-66 |
Switzerland | ~ 64-65 |
Spain | ~ 60-61 |
In other words, Germans retire earlier in international comparison – although the official starting date is later than in many neighboring countries.
In Japan, on average, people stay in the workforce even longer than they have to.
List of rubrics: © Jens Büttner/dpa
