Income statistics for the senior population 2011

This report documents the income for those aged 60 and above in the years 2001 through 2011. The purpose has been to create a basis which shows income levels and composition of income for this group. New regulations for flexible retirement were implemented in 2011. The statistics shows how the new regulations have affected the income of this group.

Persons at the age of 60 years and older accounted for over 1 million people in Norway in 2011. By including those aged from 60 years and above, we have been able to follow individuals through the transition to retirement. The report follows single year cohorts over time. It groups persons into the following categories: old-age pensioners, disability retirees, AFP-retirees and pensioners with minimum benefits. The report also includes income statistics at household level for these groups.

Statistics for single year cohorts show that the proportion of those with income from work has increased for all age groups from 60 to 75 years of age in the period 2001 to 2011. The proportion of 68- to 70 years old persons with income from work has increased with approximately 8 percentage points from 2001 to 2011.

The proportion of women with income from work has increased more than that for men in the period from 2001 to 2011. To illustrate this, for 63 years old, the proportion of women with income from work rose from 59 per cent in 2001 to 66 per cent in 2011. The equivalent statistic for men was from 73 per cent in 2001 to 76 per cent in 2011.

35 000 persons from 62 to 66 years of age used their option to draw old-age pensions. Persons 64 years of age that drew old-age pensions have on average 80 per cent higher total income than those at the same age not receiving old-age pensions.

The elderly have experienced a large increase in real value income through the decade from 2001 to 2011. 68 year olds in 2011 had, for example, a median total income which was 53 percent higher than that of 68 year olds in 2001, measured in fixed NOK.

Tax regulations treat pensions more leniently than wage income. For instance the statistics show that those born in 1941 had a 4 percent increase in total income from the age of 60 to the age of 70, in fixed NOK. By looking at average income after tax, the same group had a 16 per cent increase for the same period. The statistics show that the income in real value of an old-age pensioner at the age of 70 in 2011 is higher than the one earned when working at the age of 60.

By collecting service pension, the elderly have a better economic basis for their years in retirement. At the same time, the results of pension settlements in the recent years have been beneficial.

Persons and households within the lowest income groups experienced a greater percentage income growth through the transition to retirement than those in the higher income groups.

By following households where the main income earner was 68 years old in 2009, we find that 68 percent had the same or higher income two years after the retirement (in 2011), compared with two years prior to the retirement (in 2007).