How long is the average retirement period across the OECD?

With increases in life expectancy, it would be reasonable to expect that retirement periods — the length of time from when a person retires to when they die — would increase in tandem, but that is not the case. Across OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, the average retirement period for women has decreased by 0.6 years from 23.4 years in 2000 to 22.8 years in 2024. Meanwhile, the average retirement period for men increased by 0.6 years from 17.8 to 18.6 years. Overall, women tend to retire earlier than men and have longer retirement periods.

The shortest retirement period in the past quarter-century for males was in 2000. The retirement period at the time was 17.8 years. Meanwhile, the retirement period peaked at 19.1 years in 2014. For women, the shortest retirement period was recorded in 2021 and 2022 at 22.6 years. Meanwhile, the longest period was 23.7 years, recorded in both 2001 and 2009.

Which countries have the shortest and longest retirement periods?

Among OECD members, the retirement period for males in 2024 was the shortest in Mexico, Estonia, and Colombia at 15 years and longest in Luxembourg at 23.2 years. For females, the shortest retirement period was recorded in Mexico at 17.8 years, and the longest was recorded in Costa Rica at 26.6 years. The chart below shows the retirement periods for men and women across all 38 OECD members.

Data for this article comes from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Pension at a Glance 2025.