AFP pensioners are few in number, but collected the biggest payments

Most of the pensions and annuities of the approximately 518,000 persons receiving pensions from pension schemes outside the social security system in 1996 were linked to former jobs. The biggest payments, however, were collected by the 17,200 recipients of collective agreement pensions, known in Norwegian as AFP. They received an average of NOK 75,600 from pension schemes outside the social security system.

How much a pensioner receives in pension is strongly linked to the rights he or she has accrued during his or her working life, particularly as it relates to pension entitlements outside the social security system. This is also reflected in the statistics: All of 357,400 persons received an average of NOK 39,900 in pension and annuities earned from former jobs. In addition, 121,700 persons received an average of NOK 30,600 in disability pension from schemes outside the social security system.

With the introduction of the AFP system in 1989, many workers were given the opportunity to retire earlier than the retirement age set by social security. This gave rise to a relatively small group of pensions with large pensions from sources outside the social security system. Of the 17,200 recipients in 1996, 56 per cent were men, and they received the most--an average of NOK 87,000. Women recipients of AFP received an average of NOK 60,900. Recipients also had to be at least 64 in 1996 to receive an AFP.

New Statistics
Income statistics. Private pension schemes outside the social security system, 1996.
Statistics are published annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information, contact: Ingunn.Helde@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 51 83, or Grethe.Sparby@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 52 41.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 40, 1998