Retirement in Europe

Public pension adequacy

A 2026 study conducted by DataPulse Research compared average gross public old age pensions with modeled annual consumption expenditure for people aged 60 and over across 30 European countries, using Eurostat data adjusted to 2023 price levels, to estimate the difference between state pension income and typical retiree spending. Research reported that a negative pension to expenditure difference does not necessarily correspond to a higher risk of poverty among older people. In several cases, including Norway and Luxembourg, where state pensions fall short of estimated spending while measured poverty risk among older adults remains comparatively low, which it attributed to the role of occupational pensions and private savings in those systems. Housing related costs represent a substantial share of retirement expenditure, and homeownership can materially affect how far a given pension stretches. In countries with larger renter shares among older residents such as Germany and Austria, changes in housing and utility costs may have a larger impact on pension adequacy than in higher ownership countries such as Romania.