The Varying State of Retirement Ages

Joe Biden’s presidential debate against Donald Trump last week has been blasted as “disastrous”, reigniting conversation over whether his age would hinder his ability to lead the United States. While voters criticize Trump for his age too, it is to a lesser degree than the Democrat's candidate. Biden is 81 years old and Trump is 78.

The following chart is based on OECD estimates of national labor force surveys and the European Union Labour Force Survey, looking at retirement ages in a selection of the 50 countries analyzed, based on a five year average between 2017-2022. It shows how average retirement ages vary significantly across the world, with Indonesia showing the oldest age among men at 69.8 years, followed by Iceland (68.3) and Japan (68.3). When looking at the 2022 year alone, however, Indonesia’s number is far lower, at just 58 years old for men, while in Iceland it was 67 and Japan 65. For women, Indonesia again came out on top (69.2; although also at just 57 years when looking at 2022 and not the 5 year average) and was followed closely behind by India (69.1 for 2017-22; 58 for only 2022) and then Korea (67.4 for 2017-22; 62 for only 2022).

Saudi Arabia had the lowest average retirement age for men (58.9 for 2017-22; 47 for only 2022), followed by South Africa (60.3 for 2017-22; 60 for only 2022) and Luxembourg (60.5 for 2017-22; 62 for only 2022). For women, the bottom three countries remained the same albeit in a different order, with Saudi Arabia ranking lowest (51.3 for 2017-22; 47 for only 2022), preceded by Luxembourg (58.4 for 2017-22; 62 for only 2022) and South Africa (58.8 for 2017-22; 60 for only 2022). The 50 country average was 64.4 years for men and 63.1 years for women for 2017-22. As this chart shows, the United States is only a little above the OECD average at 65.2 years for men and 65.3 years for women over the five years.