Gender pension gap fourth largest in EU

Women in Cyprus received pensions that were 39 per cent lower than men in 2019, the fourth largest gender gap in all EU member states, while they are also at a high-risk of poverty, Eurostat reported on Wednesday.

In 2019, women in the EU aged over 65 received a pension that was on average 29 per cent lower than that of men. However, over time the gender pension gap has been decreasing and is now almost 5 percentage points lower compared with 2010 (34 per cent).

Although women received lower pensions in all EU countries, the extent of the gap varies widely. The largest difference was observed in Luxembourg, where women aged over 65 received 44 per cent less than men. Luxembourg was closely followed by Malta and the Netherlands (both 40 per cent) and Cyprus with 39 per cent.

The smallest difference in pension income between women and men was recorded in Estonia, 2 per cent, followed by Denmark with 7 per cent and Hungary with 10 per cent.

In 2019, the proportion of pensioners aged over 65 who are deemed to be at risk of poverty was between 10 per cent and 30 per cent in the majority of EU member states.

The four countries with an at-risk-of-poverty rate above 30 per cent in 2019 were Latvia (54 per cent), Estonia (51 per cent), Bulgaria (36 per cent) and Lithuania (35 per cent).

Cyprus is number six on the list with 25.9 per cent.

In contrast, the lowest rates in 2019 were recorded in Luxembourg (7 per cent), Slovakia, France, Denmark (all 9 per cent) and Greece (10 per cent).