The given bar graphs compare the average ages that men and women of six different countries, namely Denmark, France, German, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and UK retired between 2004 and 2008. Overall, almost every people in these countries, both male and female, withdrew from the labour market at an older age after two years, except for Italy, whose average age retirement in male workers remained the same while the which of female employees was younger. Another noticeable point is that men in these countries retired later than women. Moreover, Sweden remained the country recording the oldest age at which people in both genders ceased to work over the two-year period.
Regarding the male retirement age on average, the citizens of Sweden retired the lattest, at around 63,3 to 63,5 years old in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Concerning people in Netherlands and UK, they were documented with nearly the same numbers with each other, increasing from approximately 62,5 to about 63 years old in two years. The age that French men retired was much younger, hover around 58 years old. Starting with 62 years old in the beginning of the period, the age gap between 2004 and 2008 was reported to be the same as the aforementioned nations, which is around half a year. Averagely, retired Germans in 2008 was one year older than the inhabitants in 2004, who were 61 years old. Italy recorded no change in average retirement age, at 60 years old throughout the period.
In terms of the time women retired averagely, the figure for Sweden was the same as the which of men. The least difference in the typical retirement age between two sexes was displayed by France, with women generally retired around a month earlier in 2008, and the which of 2004 was completely the same. An also noteworthy feature is the decline in the time Italian female workers stopped working from under 60 years old in 2004 to just above 59 in 2008, which is a conversed pattern compared to the remaining countries. Typically, the women in the Denmark, Germany and UK retired in approximately two year, a year and six months earlier than the which of men.