Mandatory social insurance contributions and mandatory private pension contribution rates for employees and employers for a private sector worker at average earnings average equals 24% for 13 OECD countries. The average mandatory employers and employees pension contributions for the other 21 OECD countries where this is applicable averaged 18% in 2014.

Public spending on cash old-age pensions and survivors’ benefits in the OECD increased 28% faster than domestic output between 1990 and 2011, from an average of 6.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 7.9%. Public pensions are often the largest single item of social expenditure, accounting for 18% of total government spending on average.

Payments from private pension schemes were worth 1.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) on average in 2011 in the 26 OECD countries for which data are available. This is equivalent to one-fifth of average public spending on retirement benefits. Private-pension payments increased 38% faster than GDP between 1990 and 2011 on average, which is faster than public pension spending.

Public spending on pensions has been on the rise in most OECD countries for the past decades, as shown by the previous two indicators. Long-term projections show that pension spending is expected to go on growing in 20 OECD countries and fall in 13 OECD countries where data are available. On average pension expenditure is forecast to grow from around 9.0% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010-15 to 10.1% of GDP in 2050.