People in Luxembourg live 24.6 years on average after they leave the labour market, the longest of the 38 OECD countries. France follows with 24.3 years, then Slovenia with 23.9. Mexico closes the ranking with 16.5 years, Estonia comes just above it with 17.2, and the OECD average is 20.7.
The figure comes from the OECD. It measures the remaining life expectancy at the age when people actually stop working, which is often not the legal pension age. We rank countries on the average of the figures for men and women in 2024, the latest year the OECD publishes.
Leaving early counts more than living long
Luxembourg tops the ranking because people there stop working early. Men leave the labour market at 60.1 on average, the earliest of the 38 countries. Slovenian women leave at 59.5, the earliest for women.
Japan shows the other side. A Japanese man who stops working can expect to live to 85.5, a year longer than a French man (84.4). But he leaves work at 66.9, five years after the French average of 61.9, and ends up with 18.6 years against 22.5. Japan ranks 17th, level with Germany.
The latest exits are in Chile, where men work until 69.0 on average, and in South Korea, where women leave at 69.6.
Women get four more years
Women have more years after work than men in all 38 countries: 22.8 against 18.6 on the OECD average. They live longer, and in 29 of the 38 countries they also leave work earlier.
The gap is widest in Colombia, at 7.9 years. Colombian women leave the labour market at 61.2, six years before men (67.4). Costa Rican women have the most years of all, 26.6. New Zealand has the smallest gap, 2.1 years, with men and women both leaving work at 66.9.
France: second, or third
France ranks 2nd for men, with 22.5 years, and 3rd for women, with 26.1. Its lead over Slovenia is 0.4 years, and that lead depends on the life table used.
The OECD figure combines two estimates: the exit age and the life expectancy at that age. We kept the OECD’s exit ages and read the life expectancy in Eurostat’s 2024 life tables instead. With these tables, Slovenia moves up to 24.3 years and France down to 24.1, so the two swap places. Luxembourg stays first, with 25.2. On either count, France is on the podium.
French people now stop working later. Men left the labour market at 58.8 on average in 2014 and at 61.9 in 2024. Over the same ten years, the time men can expect after work fell from 24.0 years to 22.5, and the time women can expect fell from 28.2 years to 26.1.
Average of men and women. In black, 2024, the year of the ranking. Source: OECD Pensions at a Glance database
The fall has not been steady: 24.1 years in 2021 and 2022, then 24.7 in 2023.
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