Pensions at a Glance 2021
OECD and G20 Indicators
The 2021 edition of Pensions at a Glance highlights the pension reforms undertaken by OECD countries over the past two years. Moreover, the special chapter focuses on automatic adjustment mechanisms in pensions systems in OECD countries, discusses the usefulness and limitations of these policy instruments, and suggests ways to improve them in order to enhance the capacity of pension systems to fulfil their objectives. This edition also updates information on the key features of pension provision in OECD and G20 countries and provides projections of retirement income for today’s workers. It offers indicators covering the design of pension systems, pension entitlements, the demographic and economic context in which pension systems operate, incomes and poverty of older people, the finances of retirement‑income systems and private pensions.
Also available in: French
Old-age income poverty
According to the latest available figures, relative poverty rates of people aged over 65 exceeded 40% in Korea, were above 30% in Estonia and Latvia, and more than 20% in Australia, Lithuania, Mexico and the United States. By contrast, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and the Slovak Republic have the lowest relative poverty rates, below 5%. The first-tier pension level is an important factor influencing old-age poverty rates (see the indicator on “Basic, targeted and minimum pensions” in Chapter 4). There are considerable country differences in wealth (housing or otherwise) held by older people, which is not reflected in income poverty rates.