Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

The Pensions at a Glance indicators, covering all 34 OECD countries, are designed to show future entitlements for workers who entered the labour market in 2008 and spend their entire working lives under the same set of rules. The results presented here include all mandatory pension schemes for private-sector workers, regardless of whether they are public or private.

Data include pension funds per the OECD classification by type of pension plans and by type of pension funds. All types of plans are included (occupational and personal, mandatory and voluntary). The OECD classification considers both funded and book reserved pension plans that are workplace-based (occupational pension plans) or accessed directly in retail markets (personal pension plans). Both mandatory and voluntary arrangements are included. The data include plans where benefits are paid by a private sector entity (classified as private pension plans by the OECD) as well as those paid by a funded public sector entity. A full description of the OECD classification can be found at:http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/0/49/38356329.pdf. Pension funds include also some personal pension arrangements like the Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) in the United States as well as funds for government workers. The coverage of the statistics follows the regulatory and supervisory framework. All authorised pension funds are therefore normally covered by the Global Pension Statistics exercise. Assets pertaining to reserve funds in social security systems are excluded.

Data include pension funds per the OECD classification by type of pension plans and by type of pension funds. All types of plans are included (occupational and personal, mandatory and voluntary). The OECD classification considers both funded and book reserved pension plans that are workplace-based (occupational pension plans) or accessed directly in retail markets (personal pension plans). Both mandatory and voluntary arrangements are included. The data include plans where benefits are paid by a private sector entity (classified as private pension plans by the OECD) as well as those paid by a funded public sector entity. A full description of the OECD classification can be found at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/0/49/38356329.pdf.  Pension funds include also some personal pension arrangements like the Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) in the United States as well as funds for government workers. The coverage of the statistics follows the regulatory and supervisory framework. All authorised pension funds are therefore normally covered by the Global Pension Statistics exercise. Assets pertaining to reserve funds in social security systems are excluded.

The OECD Pensions at a Glance Database has been developed in order to serve a growing need for pensions indicators. It includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary pensions. It covers 34 OECD countries and aims to cover all G20 countries. Pensions at a Glance reviews and analyses the pension measures enacted or legislated in OECD countries. It provides an in-depth review of the first layer of protection of the elderly, first-tier pensions across countries and provideds a comprehensive selection of pension policy indicators for all OECD and G20 countries.

Data cover both social security reserve funds and sovereign pension reserve funds, the two main categories of public pension reserve funds. Social security reserve funds are set up as part of the overall social security system. They are funded chiefly by surpluses from employee and/or employer contributions over current payouts and, in some cases, by top-up contributions from the government through fiscal transfers and other sources. They may be managed either as part of a national social security scheme or by an independent - often public sector - fund management entity. Sovereign pension reserve funds are funds established by governments (independently of social security systems), who finance them directly through fiscal transfers. They are usually mandated to finance public pension expenditures at a specific future date. Some are not allowed to make any payouts for decades.

The OECD’s Social Benefit Recipients Database (SOCR) presents, for the first time, comparable information on the number of people receiving cash benefits. SOCR includes data for the main income replacement programmes in the unemployment, social assistance, disability and old-age branches. It currently covers eight years (2007-2014) for most OECD and EU countries