November 2025

Pensions at a Glance 2025: OECD and G20 Indicators

By Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development The 2025 edition of Pensions at a Glance highlights the pension reforms undertaken by OECD countries over the last two years. It includes a special chapter focusing on pension differences between men and women. It shows recent and projected trends in the pensions of women relative to those of men in OECD countries, analyses the key drivers of the gender pension gap, and reviews the pension rules that directly or indirectly affect gender disparities in...

Belgium braced for three-day national strike over budget cuts

Belgium on Monday braced for three days of nationwide strikes called by unions to protest the government's proposed budget cuts and reforms to the pension system. The strikes are taking place in three waves. Trains and public transport begin striking Monday, with national railroad company SNCB expecting to run two out of three trains, or just one out of three on some lines. Several Eurostars linking Brussels to Paris have been cancelled. On Tuesday, public services such as schools, creches, and hospitals join the...

October 2025

US. Uncertainty about retirement growing increasingly

Americans are growing increasingly uncertain about their retirement plans amid persistent inflation and mounting concerns about the future of Social Security. In a trio of recent surveys from Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and Northwestern Mutual, Americans' confidence in their ability to retire, retire comfortably, and the exact age at which different generations expect to retire varied widely. And in both the Schwab and Fidelity surveys, the number of Americans who said they're confident in their retirement plans fell from the same surveys conducted last...

Pensions UK calls for triple lock review amid rising state pension cost

Pensions UK has proposed replacing the triple lock with a more sustainable uprating mechanism once the state pension reaches a “clear adequacy benchmark”, ensuring it provides minimum income standards for a decent retirement. In its response to the government’s third state pension age (SPA) review, the trade body acknowledged the triple lock’s role in protecting pensioners’ incomes in real terms - particularly given ongoing concerns about the adequacy of retirement outcomes from defined contribution (DC) schemes. However, Pensions UK pointed to Office...

Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2025

By Tim Jenkins, Nicola Mc Garel & Sarah Hudson The Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index benchmarks 52 retirement income systems worldwide, spotlighting both challenges and opportunities for policymakers and investors. This year’s index expands with Kuwait, Namibia, Oman, and Panama added, incorporates updated OECD data, and introduces new integrity measures for sharper insights. Systems are assessed across three pillars, adequacy, sustainability, and integrity, using more than 50 indicators. In 2025, the Netherlands, Iceland, Denmark, Singapore and Israel all achieved...

Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2025 released.

The retirement systems of the Netherlands, Iceland and Denmark once again are the top three systems worldwide, according to the 2025 Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index. The same three topped Mercer’s 2024 report. For the first time in the 17-year history of the index, Singapore’s retirement system also received an A, the only country in Asia to achieve a rating at that level and the No. 5 system overall. Israel ranked fourth for the second consecutive year. A-grade countries offer...

2025 Global Retirement Index

By Dave Goodsell Norway has regained the top position in the 2025 Natixis Global Retirement Index, driven by its strong performance in health outcomes, low unemployment and high-income equality. Ireland surges to second place, thanks to improvements in inflation and an economic environment that supports retirement security. Since its launch in 2012, the Natixis Global Retirement Index has offered a comparative assessment of retirement security in 44 developed countries. The index evaluated 18 key indicators grouped into four subindexes: Finances in...

September 2025

UK. Gen Z need £3m plus for comfortable retirement

Young people typically now in their 20s, known as Generation Z, are likely to need at least £3 million to retire comfortably due to the erosive impact of inflation, according to new analysis by Rathbones Group, one of the UK’s leading wealth management firms. The calculations, based on the amount needed for a ‘comfortable’ retirement as defined by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), show that a 25-year-old today would need a pension pot of £3.1 million to retire at age...

65-year-old retirees in France now have higher incomes than working-age adults—meanwhile, American boomers can’t even afford to retire

French retirees officially bring in more income than their working-aged counterparts, as Americans are struggling to find the funds to retire and support their post-employment lifestyle. Due to France’s relatively young retirement age, lofty governmental spending on pensions, and high wage replacement rate, they’re now out-earning citizens with jobs as the country’s officials try and make unpopular changes. While boomers in the U.S. and UK are being forced to go back to work because they can’t afford to retire in...

UK. All generations expect to fall short of a comfortable retirement

Most UK pension savers believe they will fall short of a comfortable retirement, with rising debt, delayed retirement and low levels of financial knowledge fuelling concerns across all generations, according to Interactive Investor’s sixth Great British Retirement Survey. The research, conducted with Opinium Research and based on responses from 9,000 people, found that six in 10 savers expect retirement wealth of less than £300,000, well below the £330,000 benchmark estimated by the Pensions UK Retirement Living Standards (RLS) for a moderate...