The bar chart compares the average retirement ages for females and males in different nations for the years 2004 and 2008
Overall, most countries witnessed a moderate rise in the retirement age for both genders, except for Italy. While Swedish citizens worked for the longest time, the opposite was true for the French. It is also clear that women stopped working earlier than men.
In 2004, male employees in most countries retired at an age that varied from 60 (Italy) to over 63 years old (Sweden), except for French males who terminated their employment at over 58 years old. After four years, the average retirement age exhibited a slight increase of about half a year in Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK, and about a year in Germany. Furthermore, the figure for Italy remained relatively unchanged, with males quitting their employment permanently at 60 years old.
The retirement age for women in the surveyed countries ranged from over 58 to 63 years old in 2004. Most of these cohorts experienced a slight upward trend over four years, raising the average age for women to leave the workforce to nearly 59 to 63 and a half years old. In contrast, Italy exhibited a slight fall of half a year in its retirement age.