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 and is usually the age at which they may be entitled to receive superannuation or other government benefits. Policy makers usually consider the demography, fiscal cost of ageing, health, life expectancy, nature of profession, supply of labour force etc. while deciding the retirement age.
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Retirement age by country
Many of the countries listed in the table below are in the process of reforming the ages (see the notes in the table for details). The ages given in the table reflect the age at which one retires if they retire/have retired in the year given in the table; the trend in some countries is that in the future the age will increase gradually (where available, explanations are given in the section on notes), therefore one's year of birth determines when one has the age of retirement (e.g. in Romania women born in January 1955 had the retirement age in January 2015 at age 60; those born in January 1958 will retire in January 2019 at age 61; those born in January 1961 will retire in January 2023 at age 62; those born in January 1967 will retire in January 2030 at age 63).
The average of statutory retirement age in the 34 countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2014 was males 65 years and females 63.5 years, but the tendency all over the world is to increase the retirement age. This is also reflected by the findings that just over half the Asian investors surveyed region-wide said they agreed with raising the retirement age, with a quarter disagreeing and the remainder undecided.
Gender inequality
In all cases, men either retire later than women or at the same time. In no country do women retire later than men. This is despite the fact that women live longer than men. This inequality is being addressed, in part and only in some countries, where the retirement ages are being equalised.
Reform
Reforms tend to be phased-in slowly when the retirement age (or pension age) is increased, with grandfathering ensuring a gradual change. In contrast, when the age of retirement is decreased, changes are often brought about rapidly.
One such example of grandfathering are the transitional pension rules which were applied for staff aged 54 years or older, and to some extent for all staff in place, when in 2014 the retirement age of European civil servants was increased to 66 years of age.