The bar charts illustrate the average retirement age of men and women across seven European countries in 2004 and 2008.
What is most striking when looking at the chart is all seven countries witnessed an increase in retirement ages for both genders, with the exception of Italy. In addition, French citizens retired much earlier compared to other countries, especially Sweden, where both men and women reach the retirement age the latest.
Regarding the countries that have the highest average retirement ages, Swedish men and women retired at 63.2 and 62.9, respectively, in 2004, the highest for all nations. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom closely followed with relatively similar figures: 62.6 and 62.5 for men, 62 and 61 for women. This order did not change four years later, with all three countries experiencing a similar marginal increase.
As for the remaining countries, German and Danish men retired at 61 and 62 in 2004, and both saw increases of about one year four years later. A similar trend was observed among women in their respective nations. France also witnessed an upward trend, with both men and women rising from 58.7 to around 59 after four years. In comparison, Italy’s figures for men’s retirement age show no noticeable disparity after four years, stabilizing at 60. Meanwhile, Italian women actually retired sooner in 2008, going from 59.9 to 59.5.