Rising retirement age worldwide

Malaysia is among 38 countries with a retirement age of 60, along with Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. – 123rf.com

MORE than half of the countries surveyed worldwide have a retirement age of above 60 years old, and many have plans to gradually increase the retirement age further over the coming years.

Sourced from Trading Economics data, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data and news reports, The Star’s analysis on the retirement age in 115 countries found that 63.4% have retirement age of above 60.

Among them, 34 countries (30% of total countries) have a retirement age of 65.

This includes the compulsory retirement age for civil servants in Philippines, which puts the country with the highest retirement age in the Asean region.

However, the Philippines has a relatively low life expectancy of 69.3 in 2021, according to Our World in Data.

According to the OECD, the current retirement age in most European countries is 65 or above.

They currently also have an option to take early retirement, which has recently been lowered from the age of 60 to 56.

Most of the countries with retirement ages of over 65 have high life expectancy of above 80.

Such countries like Denmark aims to increase its retirement age to above 68 years by 2030, while Belgium at 67, and Germany at 67 in 2031.

A total of 27 countries or 23% have a retirement age of between 61 to 64 years, which include Singapore at 63 years, Myanmar (62 years), Japan (64 years) and a number of European countries.

Singapore has a life expectancy of 82.8 and its Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers has recommended that the retirement age be raised to 65 by 2030.

Other countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Italy have a retirement age of above 65 years old (10.4%).

These countries also have a high life expectancy of between 77 and 84.5 years.

Meanwhile, Malaysia is among 38 countries with a retirement age of 60 (33%), along with Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Only four countries surveyed have a retirement age of below 60, including Indonesia (58), Nepal (58), Gabon (55) and Bangladesh (59).

These countries have a life expectancy of below 70, except for Bangladesh at 72.4.

There have been calls for Malaysia to increase the retirement age, due to its ageing population and high number of citizens with insufficient savings.

Malaysia’s life expectancy has increased from 52.8 in 1950 to 76.51 years in 2022.