Retirement age in Estonia to rise to 65 years and one month for 2027
The official retirement age in Estonia in 2027 is set at 65 years and one month, the finance ministry has said, following changes in the basis on which the age is calculated.
The old-age pension age will hinge on the average expected life expectancy in Estonia from next year, based on calculations by state agency Statistics Estonia of the life expectancy of those aged 65.
On this basis the government will confirm by January 1 each year the new retirement age, which itself will take effect two years after that.
The retirement age for 2027 was already adopted last year on the basis of the edition of the Pension Insurance Act, valid until the beginning of November this year. After this, the retirement age will be set by ministerial regulation instead of by the government.
There were 326,000 pensioners in Estonia at the start of 2024, 310,000 of whom were classed as old-age pensioners. According to the Ministry of Finance's forecast, this number will grow to about 340,000 by 2060, after which it will start to fall somewhat.
The retirement age in Estonia started to rise in increments from 2017, reaching 65 years as of 2026. While this reflects rising life expectancy rates, the retirement age will not be hiked by more than three months at any one time, the finance ministry said.
In calculating the retirement age, the base period is taken as the years 2018–2022 and the reference period as the interval four to eight years before 2027.
The rise in life expectancy is calculated as a five-year moving average to avoid fluctuations in statistics from individual years. In the base period, the average expected life expectancy of 65-year-olds stands at 18.316 years (from 65).
The reference period for calculating the 2027 retirement age is the years 2019–2023, when the expected life expectancy of 65-year-olds was respectively 18.71, 18.76, 17.47, 18.23, and 18.99 years. The average for the reference period is therefore 18.432 years, differing from the base period by 0.116 years, or 1.4 months.
Since the retirement age is expressed to the accuracy of a month, the difference between the reference period and the base period is also one month, hence the retirement age for 2027 being 65 years and one month.
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Editor: Barbara Oja, Andrew Whyte
