On average in the OECD, 14.8% of individuals aged over 65 live in relative income poverty, defined as having an income below half the national median equivalised household disposable income. On average, their income is 23.6% below the relative poverty line. The average for the total population is 11.5%, some 3.3 p.p. below the old-age level. The old-age income poverty rate tends to rise with age during retirement and is higher for women than for men among all age groups.
Pensions at a Glance 2025
OECD and G20 Indicators
According to the latest available figures, the relative poverty rate of people aged over 65 was 40% in Korea, above 30% in Estonia, Latvia and New Zealand, and 20% or more in Australia, Costa Rica, Japan, Lithuania and the United States. By contrast, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Norway have the lowest relative old-age poverty rates, at 5% or below. First-tier pension levels are important factors influencing old-age poverty rates (see the indicator on “Basic, targeted and minimum pensions” in Chapter 3). These numbers are based on income data and the considerable country differences in wealth (housing or otherwise) held by older people may not be reflected in income poverty rates.
Poverty amongst older people is similar to that for the total population in most countries but there are clear outliers (Figure 7.2). These outliers mean that the old-age poverty is on average 3 p.p. higher than that of the total population – 14.8% versus 11.5%. The largest difference between old-age and total-population poverty rates is found in Korea where older people have 25 p.p. higher poverty rates than the total population, followed by Estonia, New Zealand and Latvia. Older people are less likely to be poor than the total population in several countries, especially Canada, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the Slovak Republic where the old-age poverty rate is at least 2 p.p. lower.
Poverty among older age groups
Poverty among the “younger old” (aged 66‑75) is less frequent than among the “older old” (aged 75 and over); the OECD average poverty rates are 13.1% and 17.2%, respectively. The difference between the two is particularly high in Korea (+24.2 p.p.), New Zealand (+17.8 p.p.), Estonia (+14.1 p.p.) and Latvia (+13.6 p.p.). There are many explanations for this pattern. In Korea, the pension system is still maturing, and current generations of older people still have very low pensions. Moreover, in all four countries, individual pensions are indexed to less than earnings growth (Table 3.3 in Chapter 3). When retirees grow older, this tends to lower the relative value of pensions compared to earnings. Nevertheless, in five OECD countries – Canada, Germany, Iceland, Lithuania and Poland – the over 75s fare slightly better than their younger counterparts do. Recent pension reforms in OECD countries that have reduced the generosity of pension systems have typically lowered the relative income of new generations of retirees and may therefore increase the number of countries for which this is the case.
Poverty and gender
The average old-age poverty rates for women and men in the OECD equal 16.9% and 11.7%, respectively. Lower earnings-related pension income and longer life expectancy are among the main drivers of higher poverty incidence among women than among men. Older women are at greater risk of poverty than older men in all countries except Costa Rica and Iceland. In addition to these three countries, gender differences in the poverty rate are relatively small (less than 2 p.p.) in Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico and the Netherlands.
The largest gender differences, 15 p.p. or more, are in the Baltic countries followed by Korea at 12 p.p.. There are also significant differences of more than 5 p.p. in Australia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal and the United States.
Definition and measurement
For international comparisons, the OECD treats poverty as a “relative” concept. The yardstick for poverty depends on the median household income in the total population in a particular country at a particular point in time. Here, the poverty threshold is set at 50% of median, equivalised household disposable income. Poverty depth measures how much the average income of the poor is below the relative poverty threshold, in percent of this threshold. See OECD Income Distribution Database for more details on definitions and data sources.
Further reading
OECD (2025), Income Distribution Database, www.oecd.org/social/income‑distribution-database.htm (accessed on 03 July 2025).
OECD (2017), Preventing Ageing Unequally, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279087-en.
Percentage with income lower than 50% of median equivalised household disposable income
Notes: Data are for 2022 except for some countries; see note of Table 7.1 for details. Data for Colombia is unavailable.
Source: OECD Income Distribution Database, www.oec d.org/social/income-distribution-database.htm (June 2025 version).
Note: Data are for 2022 except for some countries; see note of Table 7.1 for details.
Source: OECD Income Distribution Database, www.oecd.org/social/income-distribution-database.htm (June 2025 version).
Poverty depth
Substantial country differences exist in the so-called poverty depth, which is measured by the gap between the average income of the poor and the relative poverty line at 50% of median income (Figure 7.3). Among older people, the largest poverty depth – more than 35% of the income at the poverty threshold – is in Iceland, Korea and the United States. This means that in these countries the average income of those aged 66+ who are relatively poor is less than about one‑third (65%*50%) of the median income for the total population. In Austria, Costa Rica, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands and Spain, the poverty depth of the 66+ also exceeds 30%. The lowest average gaps, of less than 15%, are reported in Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland and the Slovak Republic. The average poverty depth is smaller for older people (24%) than for all poor (30%).
Change in poverty in recent decades
The incidence of poverty has substantially changed over time in some countries (Table 7.3). The average relative old-age poverty rate across countries has increased by 1.8 p.p., since 2011, across the 36 OECD countries for which data are available, though there is considerable country variation. Old-age poverty rates increased substantially in Estonia (+30 p.p.), Hungary (+8 p.p.), Latvia (+27 p.p.), Lithuania (+13 p.p.) and New Zealand (+17 p.p.). Conversely, old-age poverty rates fell substantially in Australia (‑11 p.p.), Israel (‑8 p.p.), Korea (‑8 p.p. and Türkiye (‑6 p.p.).
The recent increase in old-age poverty rates goes against the decline, on average, in the previous decades. Old-age poverty fell by around 2 p.p. on average between 2000 and 2011 meaning that the average rate today is now at a similar level to that in 2000.
Poverty rates decreased, on average, among the young adults since 2011. The poverty rate of the 18‑25 year‑olds decreased in 23 out of 36 countries between 2011 and 2022 and by 1.2 p.p. on average. It decreased strongly in Greece and Ireland (both ‑8 p.p.) as well as by at least 5 p.p. in New Zealand, Sweden and Türkiye. Conversely, the poverty rate for the 18‑25 age group increased by 9 p.p. in Germany and by 6 p.p. in Finland. Despite the recent decline, on average there has been an overall slight increase (0.7 p.p.) since 2000.
Hence, on average, there was a shift in poverty rates from the young adults to those in old age of 3.0 p.p. over the last decade. That shift has occurred albeit to a different extent in 20 of the 36 countries for which data are available. The most extreme shift in poverty from the young to the old happened in Estonia (+27.4 p.p.), Latvia (+30.9 p.p.) and New Zealand (+22.3 p.p.). In all three countries it is the increase in the old-age poverty rate that has been the key factor rather than the fall for young adults. In Estonia the poverty rate for young adults even increased as well. For the countries that showed a shift in poverty from the old to the young the greatest movement was found in Australia (‑11.3 p.p.), Finland (‑11.9 p.p.) and Israel (‑9.6 p.p.). This relative shift partially reversed the previous change in the opposing direction between the mid‑1990s and 2011.
Poverty depth is measured as mean income gap of poor population to income at poverty line, percentage of the poverty-line income
Note: Data are for 2022 except for some countries; see note of Table 7.1 for details. In Greece, for example, the average income of the poor aged over 65 is 21.4% below the income threshold that determines whether a person counts as poor, which equals 50% of the median income in the total population here. That is, their average income is equal to 39.3% of median income. The average income of all poor in Greece is 31.6% below that poverty line.
Source: OECD Income Distribution Database, www.oecd.org/social/income-distribution-database.htm (June 2025 version).
Percentage‑point change in share with income lower than 50% of median equivalised household disposable income
Notes: Data are for 2022 except for some countries; see note of Figure 7.1 for details. Data for Colombia and Costa Rica are unavailable.
Source: OECD calculations based on OECD Income Distribution Database, www.oecd.org/social/income-distribution-database.htm (June 2025 version).