Top 5 Earliest Retirement Ages Around the World in 2015– 2019
A project completed as the capstone project for Udacity’s Data Visualization nanodegree program!
I’ve always wondered how different the retirement age is around the world. Is there a significant trend like the gender pay gap? I live in Germany and for me the official retirement age is 67 if you were born after 1964.
Project Overview
Most of us were not born into wealth, so work is a part of our lives. If we still enjoy the work and appreciate it, we are lucky! You are either self-employed or employed and our long-term goal in retirement is to live financially free from worries and fears. So tell me what is the average retirement age on the labor market?
The data set were provided by data.world MakeOverMonday (using source OECD) and can be downloaded there. Below you will find the original data visualization of Statista, shown as an choropleth map comparission of 27 European countries regarding the average retirement age in 2020.
I’m using the same OECD data source for my data story. This has 1175 rows and 51 of 195 countries (48 %) were presented. Further data sets are not included. My data story audience is a young person who has full potential to become anything they want. This project is supported by a fund. This blog will help them in providing them a further data set for their decision making.
Problem Statement
The view presented to us shows only a certain section of information. This problem allows for bias. On the one hand, the researcher omits some data and on the other hand, the missingness data leads to false statements, which in turn lead to biasses insight.
Our recommendation in this case, it would therefore have made sense to include the birth cohorts in the data collection. The year of birth is decisive for the retirement age. This and the differentiation by gender would complete the analysis. These components gives us a more transparent and focused view of the data.
Data Story
Top 5 Earliest Retirement Ages Around the World in 2015– 2019
What do you think? Which top 5 countries have had the earliest retirement ages in recent years? I’m curious what our analysis reveals here. Life differs significantly from industrialized countries, emerging countries and developing countries. So which countries does our data set cover?
As already mentioned in the caption and as can be seen at first glance, were only 51 out of 195 countries represented in the dataset. Nevertheless, almost all industrialized and emerging countries were included in the data set. Here we see the included countries highlighted in color. The countries missing from the map (shaded gray here) are mostly developing countries. We assumed that the developing countries will have a significantly later retirement age and we based our analysis on the Top 5 earliest retirement ages, we can accept the missing data here.
Women — Early Retirement Ages
The down arrow ↓ means that the retirement age has improved downwards. The up arrow ↑ means that the retirement age has deteriorated upwards.
We can see here that the dates change in the period 2015 to 2019 for the Women Early Retirement Ages. Saudi Arabia is consistently in first place. Poland, Slovakia and Croatia followed in turn. In the penultimate year 2018, with the exception of Slovenia, there was a deterioration in the early retirement age. In 2019, on the other hand, the retirement age was lowered for all countries by several months.
Men — Early Retirement Ages
The down arrow ↓ means that the retirement age has improved downwards. The up arrow ↑ means that the retirement age has deteriorated upwards.
We can see here that the dates change in the period 2015 to 2019 for the Men Early Retirement Ages. Luxembourg, France and Belgium alternate in the Top 3. Slovak Republic and Croatia followed in turn. In the penultimate year 2018, with the exception of Croatia, there was a deterioration in the early retirement age. In 2019, on the other hand, the retirement age was lowered, with the exception of Luxembourg, by several months.
Comparission Earliest Retirement Ages
The global comparison clearly shows that the female population of Saudi Arabia has a very early retirement age of all years. The other Top 4 are on average 58–59 years old. The average retirement age of the Top 5 in 2015 was 57.28 years and improved in 2019 by 0.28 points to 57.0 years.
The retirement age for men is not so clear. Luxembourg, France and Belgium alternate in the Top 3. Slovak Republic and Croatia followed in turn. The average retirement age of the Top 5 in 2015 was 59.64 years and improved in 2019 by 0.38 points to 60.0 years.
Both genders are included in this chart. The average retirement age of the Top 5 in 2015 was 58.46 years and decreased in 2019 by 0.04 points to 58.5 years.
Conclusion
To get a better understanding of the data set, the charts differentiated by gender has contributed to a more transparent insight. We see that the retirement age in 2015 differs significantly for women (57.28 years) and for men (59.64 years). The difference in retirement age were 2.36 years. On average, men had to work longer before they could retire. A comparison with 2019 shows a similar trend. The gender pay gap just goes the other way. So the average retirement age on the labor market for women generally retire at the age of 57.0. For men, on the other hand, did not retired until the age of 60.0.
Overall, however, it can be stated for both sexes that the retirement age of the Top 5 has improved over the years.
Do the Early Retirement Ages has decreased around the world recently?
Is it true? What do you think?
