Lisbon, Dec. 12, 2025 (Lusa) - Half of old-age pensioners in Portugal received a monthly pension of less than €462 in 2024, despite the average being €645, according to data analysed by economists at the Bank of Portugal, who also point out the differences between genders.
According to the analysis of social security microdata for 2024 carried out by central bank economists, there is "high dispersion", with half of old-age pensioners in the general scheme receiving less than €462 and 5% receiving more than €1,685.
"The proximity between the average pension and the 75th percentile reveals that most pensioners receive amounts significantly below the average, reflecting an asymmetrical distribution concentrated at low levels," notes the text prepared by Cláudia Braz, Sharmin Sazedj and Lara Wemans, which will appear in this month's Economic Bulletin.
The analysis also focused on gender differences, pointing out that there is less variability among women, who, on average, receive lower pensions.
In total, there were 2.5 million old-age pensioners in the public schemes, of whom two million belong to the social security system and 440,000 to the Caixa Geral de Aposentações (CGA - the public entity in Portugal responsible for managing the social security scheme for civil servants and equivalent workers hired until 2005, providing retirement, old-age and survivor pensions).
In 2024, the average age of pensioners was 75 years, with women being 15 months older than men, ‘reflecting a higher average life expectancy’.
In 2024, the average old-age pension for women was €490, compared to €812 for men. The difference, of around 40%, falls to 28% when the sum of old-age and survivor's pensions is considered (a survivor's pension is a monthly amount paid by Social Security to the family members of a deceased person who contributed to the system, replacing part of the lost income, with figures varying (e.g. spouse receives 60% of the deceased's pension, or more if there are other dependents).
Broken down by age group, the lowest average pensions occur in the older age groups, with pensioners under 65 having an average pension of around €770, falling to €537 for pensioners over 80.
"This profile is likely to be associated with the increase in the length of contributory careers and the declared income of new pensioners," the bulletin notes.
The data also show that in 2024, among all old-age pensioners, 40% - or 804,000 people - were receiving the minimum pension, an indicator calculated on the basis of the number of years of contributions.
The analysis also points out that the gender gap has gradually narrowed in recent years, although there is still a difference between men and women, not only due to the narrowing of wage differences, but also due to the increase in female participation in the labour market and the increase in contributory careers, according to the authors.
The authors also point out that penalties applied to early retirement have contributed to an increase in the retirement age, which rose from 64.7 years of age in 2019 to 65.4 years in 2024, despite the legal age remaining at 66.3 years.
However, despite this convergence between the two indicators, 38% of new pensioners retired before the legal age, compared to 32% who did so at that age and 31% after the legal age.
Of the new pensioners, 10% continued to work, mainly among beneficiaries with higher pensions.
According to the data analysed, retirees who continued to work after retirement received an average of €933, compared to an average of €591 for those who did not work after retirement.
Less than one in four new pensioners who stopped working after retirement received more than the minimum wage, while more than half of new pensioners who continued to work had a pension equal to or greater than €1,000.
As for the replacement rate, which refers to the relationship between the last salary and the pension, and which assesses the maintenance of income levels after retirement, this stood at around 70%, with women (67%) on average lower than men (74%).
In relation to the last salary, the replacement rate is higher the lower the salary, rising from 77% for salaries up to €900 to 61% for salaries above €2,500 in gross terms.
"This behaviour reflects, on the one hand, greater differences between the initial and final salaries of the career in higher incomes and, on the other hand, the redistributive effect of the pension calculation formula, which proportionally favours lower salaries," they point out.
The authors also point out that when the total income of pensioners is considered - income from work, social benefits, rents and capital income, minus income tax - this is about 18% lower than the income of employees (i.e. those working for someone else), but this ratio decreases to 10% when adjusted for household composition, since they have, on average, fewer children and young people to support.
"When compared with the general population, and not just with employees, the average total income per equivalent adult of Portuguese pensioners is no different from the rest of the population," they add, contrasting with the more than 10% drop in the eurozone average.
At the bottom of the distribution, pensioners have an income that is around 8.1% higher than the rest of the population, justified by the combination of minimum pensions with the Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly and other benefits.
JO/AYLS // AYLS
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