January 2026
07Jan

Gender Pension Gap in Europe Averaged 22% in 2024

Women in Europe receive significantly lower pensions than men, with the average gap across 27 European countries standing at 22%, according to data from the OECD and Eurostat reported by Euronews Business. This means that, on average across Europe, women receive just EUR78 in pension income, whereas men receive EUR100. The gender pay gap is a related phenomenon, with women in the EU earning 12% less than men in 2023. However, the pension gap is wider. In 2024, the gender...

January 7, 2026
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November 2025
20Nov

Why private pensions can’t fix the ageing problem

Across Europe, politicians increasingly tout private pensions as a cure-all for reviving stagnant stock exchanges, fostering entrepreneurship and curbing ballooning public spending as populations age. But any governments that bet on this solution may be disappointed. A proliferation of individual piggybanks will not solve the deeper challenges that flow from having purchasing power ever-more concentrated in older hands. According to the United Nations, Europe’s population aged 20 to 64 will shrink by 31% between now and 2100, while longer lifespans...

November 20, 2025
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10Nov

European nations have no choice but to raise retirement ages – our case study shows why

In early October 2025, with his political future hanging by a thread, France’s resigned-and-reappointed prime minister Sébastien Lecornu pledged to suspend unpopular pension reforms until 2027, when presidential elections will be held. Socialist MPs declared victory. The French business community groaned. The S&P downgraded France’s credit rating, citing budget concerns. With France kicking inevitable reforms at least two years down the road, and many European countries facing pension crises of their own, it is worth considering how to design pension reforms...

November 10, 2025
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October 2025
24Oct

European pension providers back calls for governments to stop deforestation

Institutional investors, including European pension providers, have urged global governments to adopt strong policies to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 and to prevent further loss of natural ecosystems. The Belém Investor Statement on Rainforests highlighted investor concerns about the financial risks posed by tropical deforestation and nature loss, warning that exposure to commodities produced on deforested land creates material vulnerabilities across global investment and lending portfolios. It also said that the degradation of forests threatens the ecosystem...

October 24, 2025
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16Oct

Why Europe can’t face its pension black hole

France's political standoff shows how European governments, caught between the demands of their ageing electorates and the need to keep spending in check, keep struggling to fix the pension-shaped holes in their budgets. The right to a pension has been a central plank of the European social contract for decades. But longer life spans and fewer births mean most governments can't afford to have people retiring on a full pension in their early 60s, as was once the norm. The Week...

October 16, 2025
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14Oct

Saudi Arabia Named Arab Regional Center for Social Insurance Training by ISSA

The Liaison Office for Arab Countries at the International Social Security Association (ISSA) has approved Saudi Arabia as the headquarters of the regional center for training specialists in social insurance, underscoring the Kingdom’s leading role in pension and social protection systems at both regional and international levels. The center will focus on training national and regional professionals in social insurance and pension systems, enhancing their ability to keep pace with economic and social developments, and improving the efficiency of insurance...

October 14, 2025
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10Oct

Europe’s productive capital gap. Mobilising pension and household savings to scale up risk capital

By Patrick Augustin, Sebastien Betermier, Emma Gormley & Marie Parent The ALFI/McGill new study ‘Europe's productive capital gap’ shows that Europe is falling behind in mobilising household and pension savings into productive investment compared to reformed pension economies such as Australia, Canada, and Sweden. The study compares nine countries: four European economies with reformed, capital-based systems (Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden); two successful reformers outside Europe (Australia and Canada); and three major European economies still dominated by PAYG pensions (Germany,...

October 10, 2025
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10Oct

Europe’s aging burden far less than US or China

Graying Europe has long been considered an outlier in global demographics – but the rising cost to its governments in terms of bills for pensions and health care are more manageable than assumed and less than in rival economies in the United States and China. In a detailed report on the rising cost to the public purse from Europe's aging population, Brussels-based think Breugel this week outlined the trajectory through 2070 using the latest country-by-country data from the European Commission. Familiar...

October 10, 2025
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09Oct

Europe’s pension system reform could bring boost to risk assets

Europe’s growing productivity gap to the US and China in particular could be closed with the help of more long-term risk capital in asset classes such as public and private equities and infrastructure to drive productive investments, according to a study authored by researchers at McGill University in collaboration with the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI). In a report titled “EUROPE’S PRODUCTIVE CAPITAL GAP – Mobilising pension and household savings to scale up risk capital”, authors based at...

October 9, 2025
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07Oct

Aging, not smartphones, drives US’s growing loneliness crisis

In a recent study in PLoS One, researchers examined how birth cohort, time period, and age shape the time that people spend alone when social media and smartphone use are widespread. Their findings show that social isolation has increased sharply over the past two decades, accelerating since the mid-2010s. However, smartphones alone cannot explain these changes, with generational differences and aging contributing to isolation. Background The U.S. Surgeon General described isolation and loneliness as a national epidemic in 2023, pointing to online...

October 7, 2025
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