Quality report: Effective Retirement Age
1. Contact
1.1 Contact organisation
The Finnish Centre for Pensions
1.2 Contact organisation unit
Planning Department
1.3 Contact name
1.4 Contact person function
Statistical expert
1.5 Contact mail address
The Finnish Centre for Pensions
FI-00065 ELÄKETURVAKESKUS
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
10 February 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
10 February 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
10 February 2025
3. Statistical presentation
3.1. Data description
The statistics represents the retirement age within Finland’s earnings-related pension system, using three central statistical indicators: the expected effective retirement age, the median retirement age and the average retirement age. Each indicator offers a unique way to interpret the retirement age and is appropriate for different analytical contexts.
3.2. Classification system
Gender, employment sector, pension benefit
3.3. Sector coverage
The statistics covers all persons who have retired from Finland’s earnings-related pension system.
The following pension benefits are included in the statistics:
- old-age pension
- disability pension
- unemployment pension (up to 2011)
- part-time pension (up to 2017)
- partial old-age pension (from 2017 onwards).
The statistics also covers pensions received in one’s own right, which include old-age pensions, disability pensions and unemployment pensions.
The statistics include only statutory earnings-related pensions. This means that, for example, voluntary supplementary pensions are excluded.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Concepts and definitions have been presented on the statistics page.
3.5. Statistical unit
Person
3.6. Statistical population
Persons who have retired from the Finnish earnings-related pension system.
3.7. Reference area
Finland
3.8. Time coverage
The statistics have been compiled since 2003, and time series have been produced retrospectively back to 1996. Private sector time series extend to 1983.
4. Unit of measure
Age in years
5. Reference period
Calendar 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
Some of the data in the statistics are published in the Sotkanet Indicator Bank maintained by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
7. Confidentiality
7.1. Confidentiality – policy
The Finnish Centre for Pensions is committed to data protection as a fundamental principle of statistics, which ensures the confidentiality 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 Finnich 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.
9. Frequency of dissemination
The statistics are published once a year.
10. Accessibility and clarity
10.1. News release
The releases of the statistics can be found in the shared open repository Julkari.
Effective retirement age (Julkari).
Press releases on this topic can be found online at the website of the statistics.
10.2. Publications
10.3. Online database
Effective retirement age (PxWeb)
10.4. Microdata access
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10.5. Other
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10.6. Documentation on methodology
The methods used have been documented in the methodological description of the statistics.
11. Quality Management
11.1. Quality assurance
The Finnish Centre for Pensions is committed to the quality principles of Official Statistics of Finland. Our 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 information is on an individual level, based on which pensions are paid.
13.2. Sampling error
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13.3. Non-sampling error
The data from the registers are extracted at the beginning of the year, so some of the backdated pension decisions may be missing from the statistical data.
14. Timeliness and punctuality
14.1. Timeliness
The statistics is released once a year, in February following the statistical year.
15. Coherence and comparability
15.1. Comparability – geographical
The statistics does not include regionally classified data.
15.2. Comparability – over time
The statistical time series has been produced retrospectively back to the statistical year 1996, ensuring data comparability throughout the entire period. When interpreting the statistics, it is important to consider changes that have occurred in the earnings-related pension legislation.
Year-by-year changes in earnings-related pension legislation
15.3. Coherence – cross domain
Differences in the definitions of concepts may make comparisons with other statistics covering the same statistical domain difficult.
15.4. Coherence – internal
The data in the statistics are coherent with those of the statistics ”Earnings-related pension recipients in Finland” (OSF) and ”Persons insured for earnings-related pension in Finland” (OSF).
16. Cost and burden
The production of the statistics is financed annually by the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
17. Data Revision
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18. Statistical processing
18.1. Source data
The statistics is based on data in the statistics ”Earnings-related pension recipients in Finland” (OSF) and ”Persons insured for earnings-related pension in Finland” (OSF).
18.2. Frequency of data collection
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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
The data processing is described in the statistics’ Methodological description.