Statistics in Focus: Population and social conditions. The transition of women and men from work to retirement.

Abstract

The official age of retirement, or the age at which women and men are entitled to draw a full retirement pension, is similar in most European countries, varying between 60 and 65 for women in nearly all countries and between 62 and 65 for men. However, the age at which women and men actuallywithdraw from the labour market into retirement varies much more markedly across Europe and in most cases is well below the official age. Equally, this age also varies between individuals so that there is no unique effective age of retirement but a range over which women and men make the transition from work to retirement.