Quality report: Earnings-related Pension Recipients in Finland
1. Contact
1.1 Contact organisation
The Finnish Centre for Pensions
1.2 Contact organisation unit
Planning Department
1.3 Contact name
Joonas Hautamäki
Jari Kannisto
1.4 Contact person function
Statistical expert
1.5 Contact mail address
The Finnish Centre for Pensions
FI-00065 ELAKETURVAKESKUS
Finland
1.6 Contact email address
firstname.lastname@etk.fi
Contact form
1.7 Contact phone number
+358 29 411 20
1.8 Contact fax number
Fax: +358 9 148 1172
2. Metadata update
2.1. Metadata last certified
26 June 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
26 June 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
26 June 2024
3. Statistical presentation
3.1. Data description
The statistics depict the number of and average pensions of persons who have received and who have retired with an earnings-related pension.
3.2. Classification system
Private and public sector; pension benefit; size of pension; gender and age of pension recipient; classification of diseases ICD-10; regional classification: municipality, region, wellbeing services county and country of residence.
3.3. Sector coverage
The statistics covers all statutory pensions paid from the Finnish earnings-related pension system.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The concepts and definitions have been presented on the statistics page.
3.5. Statistical unit
Person / pension recipient.
3.6. Statistical population
Persons receiving a pension from the Finnish earnings-related pension system.
3.7. Reference area
Municipality, province, wellbeing services county and country of residence.
3.8. Time coverage
The statistics have been produced since 1996. As for the number of recipients of an earnings-related pension, the time series extends to 1981.
4. Unit of measure
Number of persons.
Pension amount: €/month (gross pension).
Population share: % of population insured by Kela for social security benefits.
Disabiltiy pension incidence: ‰ of population insured for earnings-related pensions.
5. Reference period
For pension recipients, the last day of the statistical month and year. For new pensioners, the calendar month and year.
6. Institutional mandate
6.1. Legal acts and other agreements
The Act on the Finnish Centre for Pensions states that one of the responsibilities of the institution is to compile statistics in its field of operations.
6.2. Data sharing
The statistical data is delivered annually to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) for the statistics of the European system of integrated social protection statistics (ESSPROS).
7. Confidentiality
7.1. Confidentiality – policy
The Finnish Centre for Pensions is committed to data protection as a fundamental principle of statistics, which ensures confidential processing of data.
7.2. Confidentiality – data treatment
Data is protected by the necessary physical and technical solutions at the various stages of processing. Personnel have access only to the data necessary for their work. Third parties do not have access to the premises where the data is processed. Employees are required to sign a confidentiality agreement when they are hired.
8. Release Policy
The statistics of the Finnish Centre for Pensions are released on weekdays at 9.00 a.m. on the website of the Finnish Centre for Pensions. Any exceptions to the release time are announced separately.
The data in the statistical database are released as open data. The database’s open interface can be freely used under the CC BY 4.0 licence, with the Finnish Centre for Pensions being cited as the source of the statistical data.
8.1. Release Calendar
The release dates of the statistics are published in the release calendar. The release calendar for the following year is published towards the end of the year.
8.2. Release calendar access
8.3. User access
The statistics are available to everyone when they are published on the website of the Finnish Centre for Pensions at a previously announced date.
Embargo policy: Media that are bound by the journalist’s guidelines may request material from the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ Communications Department.
Communication Department’s contact information
9. Frequency of dissemination
The monhtly data of the statistics are released after mid-month of the month following the statistical month.
Special data of disability pensions are released in March.
Annual data on earnings-related pension recipients are released in March.
Preliminary data on the number of new pensioners with earnings-related pensions are released in February. The final data on new pensioners is released in June.
A separate statistical publication is released each year in June.
10. Accessibility and clarity
10.1. News release
The releases of the statistics can be found in the shared open repository Julkari: Earnings-related pension recipients in Finland (Julkari)
Press releases on this topic can be found online at the website of the statistics.
10.2. Publications
Earnings-related Pension Recipients in Finland: monthly statistic
Earnings-related pension recipients in Finland (Julkari)
10.3. Online database
The monthly statistics on earnings-related pension recipients (PxWeb)
Number of earnings-related pension recipients (PxWeb)
Number of new retirees on earnings-related pension (PxWeb)
Size of earnings-related pension recipients’ pension (PxWeb)
Size of pension of new retirees on earnings-related pension (PxWeb)
Disability pension incidence rate (PxWeb)
Recipients of earnings-related pension living abroad (PxWeb)
10.4. Microdata access
The Finnish Centre for Pensions can extract research material from its registers for scientific research. It discloses the data in compliance with the principles of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities and the Data Protection Act. As a rule, it does not disclose register data for commercial purposes. The scientific research must be identified.
Apply for research access to register data of the Finnish Centre for Pensions (pdf)
11. Quality Management
11.1. Quality assurance
The Finnish Centre for Pensions is committed to the quality principles of Official Statistics of Finland. Its statistical production follows the quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland, which are compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice.
11.2. Quality assessment
The quality of statistics is assessed at several stages in the statistical process.
12. Relevance
12.1. User needs
Feedback from users is gathered through customer surveys. Feedback is also collected through direct contact. The feedback received is monitored and taken into account in the development of the statistics.
13. Accuracy and reliability
13.1. Overall accuracy
The data are based on administrative registers. The source data are at individual level and used for the payment of pensions.
13.2. Sampling error
–
13.3. Non-sampling error
The register data are extracted at the beginning of the year, when some of the retroactive pension decisions may be missing from the statistical data.
14. Timeliness and punctuality
14.1. Timeliness
The monthly data of the statistics are released after mid-month of the month following the statistical month.
The annual data are compiled in several parts which are published in five separate releases following the quality inspection of the data.
The first part is released in February and the last part in June following the statistical year.
15. Coherence and comparability
15.1. Comparability – geographical
The regional classification (municipalities, counties, wellbeing services counties) in force in each statistical year is used in the statistics.
15.2. Comparability – over time
This statistical publication has been produced since 1996. Its time series are mainly comparable from that date. As for the number of earnings-related pension recipients, the time series extends back to the year 1981.
In 2005—2013, the statistics was published under the name Pensioners and Insured in Finland (Official Statistics of Finland). As of the statistical year 2014, the data is published in two different statistical publications: Earnings-related pension recipients in Finland (OSF) and Persons insured for an earnings-related pension in Finland (OSF).
In 1999, the concept of new retirees was changed. It no longer includes persons retiring on a part-time pension. They are included in the figures for new retirees when they start to receive some other pension that is based on their own working life, usually an old-age pension.
The partial old-age pension, introduced in 2017, is processed in the same way in the statistics as the part-time pension. That means that persons who retired on a partial old-age pension in 2020 are not considered new retirees.
As of the statistical year 2020, survivors’ pensions (the surviving spouse’s pension and orphan’s pension) that amount to 0 euro are no longer included in figures of the annual statistics. In the monthly statistics, the change is made as of the beginning of the statistical year 2021. This change affects the number of recipients of survivors’ pensions and the average pension level.
The amount of the paid survivors’ pensions is affected by the surviving spouse’s own earnings-related pension (or calculated accrued pension) and benefits paid based on motor liability and accident insurance. Taking them into consideration may lead to a survivors’ pension of 0 euro.
Changes in earnings-related pension legislation must be considered when interpreting the statistics:
Year-by-year changes in earnings-related pension legislation
15.3. Coherence – cross domain
Differences in the definition of concepts may make comparisons with other statistics of the same statistical region difficult.
These statistics include only statutory earnings-related pensions, which exclude, for example, voluntry supplementary pension insurances.
15.3.1. Coherence – sub annual and annual statistics
The data on the earnings-related pension system are mainly coherent between the monthly and annual statistics. Due to the differences in the date of extraction of the data, some of the pension data may become more accurate in the course of the year.
15.4. Coherence – internal
The data of the statistics are coherent with the data in the joint statistics of the Finnish Centre for Pensions and Kela (Statistics on Pensioners in Finland).
Statistics on Pensioners in Finland
16. Cost and burden
The production of the statistics is financed annually by the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
17. Data Revision
–
18. Statistical processing
18.1. Source data
The statistics are based on the registers of the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
–
18.3. Data collection
Administrative registers.
18.4. Data validation
Adjustments are made at different stages of statistical production in accordance with the production processes of the Finnish Centre for Pensions. In addition, the results are compared with changes in legislation and with data from previous statistical years.
18.5. Data compilation
Individual-level pension data are extracted from the pension register. They are used to generate aggregate data and statistical tables.