SIGLAS Instituto Nacional de Estadística
21 June 2024

Economically Active Population Survey (EAPS). Module on pensions and participation in the labour market

Year 2023

Main results

  • 4.4% of people who in 2023 were between 50 and 64 years old received some retirement pension. Among the population aged 65 to 74 years, the percentage reached 67.2%.
  • 89.6% of people who received at least one retirement pension received it only from the Public System.
  • 69.7% of the contributions made by people between 50 and 64 years old to receive retirement pensions in the future were solely for retirement pensions from the Public System.
  • 6.9% of people aged 50 to 74 received some pension or disability benefit of a periodic nature.

The 2023 EPA module on pensions and labour market participation analysed 15,764,500 people between the ages of 50 and 74, of whom 3,806,700 received some retirement pension (24.2%).

By sex, 29.3% of men in that age group received some retirement pension, compared to 19.4% of women.

As the age increases, the percentage of people who received some type of retirement pension increases, being 67.2% for those aged 65 to 74.

Types of Pensions

89.6% of people who received at least one retirement pension received it only from the Public System.

By sex, 90.7% of women received only the Public System pension, compared to 88.8% of men.

People who received only a retirement pension from employer pension plans or a retirement pension from individual pension plans did not exceed 2.1%.

Type of pension, by sex (1)

Percentage

(1) Persons between 50 and 74 years of age receiving an old age pension.
* Other combinations: "statutory pension and occupational pension", "occupational pension and personal pension" and "statutory pension, occupational pension and personal pension ".

64.3% of the 3,726,900 people who received any retirement pension from the Public System had no reduction or bonus in the first pension they received, compared to 24.2% who had a reduction due to early retirement.

By sex, 27.2% of men in that age group had a reduction in pension due to early retirement, compared to 19.9% of women.

Disability or Invalidity

6.9% of people who in 2023 were between 50 and 74 years old received some pension or benefit for periodic disability or invalidity. 67.9% began to perceive it between the ages of 45 and 74.

By age group, from the people who started to receive that pension, the percentage of men in the 16-44 age group exceeded that of women by 8.4 points. In the 45 to 54-year-old age group, the difference in percentages decreased to one point. In contrast, in the 55-74 age group, the percentage of women exceeded that of men by 3.9 points.

Persons between 50 and 74 years of age, according to age at which the person started receiving the disability pension or other periodic disability cash benefits, by sex

Percentage

Contribution for future pensions

Of the 10,351,000 people aged 50 to 64 who did not receive a retirement pension or who only received one from individual pension plans, 77.8% were contributing to have some type of pension in the future or had done so in the past.

By sex, this percentage reached 84.6% in men and 71.5% in women.

Persons between 50 and 64 years of age not receiving a statutory nor an occupational pension, according to having entitlements for an old age pension, by sex

69.7% of the 8,050,600 people between 50 and 64 years of age who were contributing to qualify for a retirement pension or had done so, contributed only to the retirement pension of the Public System.

Meanwhile, 19.3% did so to a combination of a Public System pension and an individual pension plan.

Reasons for leaving the labour market

Of the 2,607,500 people who in 2023 were between 50 and 74 years old and who left the labour market and received some type of retirement pension, seven out of 10 did so to meet the requirements to retire. This reason was the most frequent, both in women (71.7%) and in men (68.6%).

For 10.5% of the people considered, the main reason to stop working was their own illness or disability. Meanwhile, the least common reason (for 1.3%) was to have a favourable financial situation to leave.

By sex, she highlighted the responsibility of care or other family reasons, which reached 2.8% of women, compared to 0.6% of men.

Main reason to stop working, by sex(2)

Percentage

(2) Persons between 50 and 74 years of age that stopped working during the six months after their first old age pension receipt.
* Other job-related reasons (e.g. dismissed, stressful job, lack of clients, slow business).

People who received a pension and continued to work

A total of 184,900 people aged 50 to 74 continued to work in the six months after receiving their first retirement pension.

For 18.8% of these people, the main reason to stay busy was economic, as it was necessary to obtain additional income. 48.7% continued to work for other reasons, including that the job was economically attractive and that their partner was still working.

Main reason to continue working, by sex(3)

Percentage

(3) Persons between 50 and 74 years of age who continued working during the six months after their first old age pension receipt.
*Other reasons that also include: ''Financially attractive'' and ''Partner/spouse still working''.

Revision and updating of data

The data published today are final. All results of this operation are available on INEBase.

Methodological note

The 2023 module of the Labour Force Survey, carried out in collaboration with Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union), investigates pensions and participation in the labour market of people aged 50 to 74.

The variables in this module have been established according to the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240 of 16 December 2019 and are intended to provide harmonized information on this issue at the European level. The Commission has co-financed the implementation costs of this module.

The module questions were posed to the EPA subsample, found in sixth interview that includes the additional subsample collected by the Galician Institute of Statistics in Galicia.

Type of operation:
annual continuous statistics (each year is on a different subject related to the labour market).
Population scope:
population residing in family homes.
Geographical scope:
the entire national territory.
Reference period of the results:
year 2023
Information reference period:
usual situation at the time of the interview.
Collection method:
personal, telephone and web interviews.

For more information, both the  module's methodology and the  EPA's standardised methodological report, which is the module's base survey, may be consulted for more information. 

INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information on Quality at INE and the Code of Best Practices.

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