{"id":755499,"date":"2026-02-10T18:35:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/755499\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:35:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:35:33","slug":"germany-has-the-oldest-workers-in-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/755499\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany has the oldest workers in the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

The German population is above average age, and of course this also applies to the labor market. This is dramatic, especially considering the future of the pension system.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In no other European Union member state is the working population as old as in Germany. In 2024, of the approximately 40.9 million employed, 9.8 million of them were between the ages of 55 and 64, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

This corresponds to a percentage of almost a quarter (24.0 percent) \u2013 \u201cthe highest value among all EU countries,\u201d as it was said. For comparison: the EU average for this age group is 20.1 percent.<\/p>\n

The retirement age is increasingly being postponed<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second largest share in the EU after Germany is recorded by Italy: there, people aged 55 to 64 account for 23.0 percent of the employed.<\/p>\n

In Bulgaria this percentage is also high at 22.3 percent. According to these data, Malta has the proportionally lowest number of older employed people in the EU: only around one in nine employed people (10.8 percent) is between the ages of 55 and 64.<\/p>\n

Even in Luxembourg (12.8 percent) and Poland (15.2 percent), this age group constitutes a relatively small share of the employed.<\/p>\n

Causes of higher age<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe main reason for the high percentage of older employed people in Germany is the increasingly pronounced aging of the population,\u201d the statisticians explain. \u201cPlus, people in this country are retiring later and later.\u201d<\/p>\n

The average retirement age for women and men in 2024 was 64.7 years. In 2004, it was 63.0 years for women and 63.1 years for men. One of the reasons for the increase is the gradual increase in the legal retirement age to 67 years by 2029.<\/p>\n

Also, according to the same statements, the abolition of two models of early old-age pensions, which can be partially used from the age of 60, also played a role. The pension system is under pressure.<\/p>\n

The key to solving the problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expects a significant strain on Germany\u2019s pension system. The working-age population will shrink over the next 40 years, according to a study published in late 2025. \u201cLonger working lives will be key to financing pensions in the future,\u201d the OECD advises.<\/p>\n

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Read more @gazetaexpress<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The German population is above average age, and of course this also applies to the labor market. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[1152,2000,299,1824,33822,64127],"class_list":["post-755499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-aging","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-germany","tag-labor-market","tag-reason"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116047781808145475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}