Steady increase in the expected duration of working life in the EU
The expected duration of working life was on average 36.5 years in the EU in 2022, 38.6 years for men and 34.2 years for women (see Figure 1). Since 2002, the expected duration of working life steadily increased in the EU from 32.4 years in 2002 to 35.9 years in 2019. In 2020, linked to the COVID-19 health crisis, the expected duration of working life decreased to 35.6 years.
Despite the halt in 2020, the indicator has witnessed a constant growth in the years of working life over the past 20 years for both sexes. Although men are expected to work longer than women, the gender gap has reduced with increasing female participation in the labour market. Indeed, the estimated expected duration of working life for men was 35.7 years in 2002, while for women it was 28.9 years. Compared with 2002, the gender gap of the expected duration of working life was consequently narrower in 2022 (4.4 years compared with 6.8 years).
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_dwl_a)
North European countries have the longest working life
In the EU, the expected duration of working life has varied broadly according to countries and their geographical location. Countries in north Europe, including the three EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) recorded the longest durations exceeding 40 years of working life. Iceland (45.4 years), The Netherlands (43.2 years), Sweden (42.6 years), Switzerland (42.0 years), Norway (41.2 years), Denmark (41.0 years) and Estonia (40.3 years) ranked highest. The shortest durations of working life were recorded in Romania (31.5 years) and several south European countries: Italy (32.2 years), Bulgaria (33.6 years), Greece (33.9 years), Croatia and Serbia, both with 34.0 years (see Map 1).
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_dwl_a)
Gender gap in 2022
In 2022, significant differences in the average number of years of working life between men and women was observed in all considered countries. All north European and the aforementioned EFTA countries had a gender gap below the EU average of 4.4 years. Among EU countries, men are expected to work the longest in the Netherlands (45.1 years), Sweden (43.8 years), Denmark (42.4 years), Ireland (42.3 years), Cyprus (41.7 years), Malta (41.6 years), Germany (41.2 years), Austria (40.3 years) and Finland (40.1 years). In the EFTA countries men also expected to work the longest: Iceland with 47 years, Switzerland (44.1 years) and Norway with 42.6 years (see Figure 2).
On the opposite side, the countries where men are expected to work the least, are Bulgaria with 34.8 years, Romania (34.9 years), Croatia (35.7 years), Luxembourg and Belgium, both with 36.2 years, Slovakia (36.4 years), Lithuania and Italy, both with 36.5 years.
Concurrently, the EU countries where women are expected to work less than 30 years in their lifespan are Italy (27.6 years) and Romania (28 years). Following are Greece (30.3 years), Croatia (32.1 years), Poland (32.2 years), Bulgaria (32.3) and Belgium (32.7), all with less than 33 years.
By contrast, the longest durations of working life for women, i.e. more than 37 years, were found in Sweden (41.4 years), the Netherlands (41.1), Estonia (40.7), Finland (39.7), Denmark (39.4), Lithuania (38.1), Germany and Portugal (both 37.4 years), as well as the EFTA countries: Iceland (43.7 years), Switzerland (39.8 years) and Norway (39.7 years).
Lithuania and Estonia were the only EU Member States where the gender gap was negative, as women are expected to work 1.6 years and 0.8 years more than men, respectively. A very small gender gap was recorded in Finland with only 0.4 years, while no difference between men and women was recorded in Latvia. In all the other EU Member States, men are expected to work longer than women (4.4 years in the EU). The countries with the greatest gender gaps in 2022, were Italy (8.9 years), Greece (7.0 years), Romania (6.9 years), Malta (6.8 years), Cyprus (6.3 years), Ireland and Czechia (both 6.0 years).
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_dwl_a)
Different trends among countries
The expected duration of working life varied broadly across the countries participating in the EU-LFS showing different patterns over time, especially with regard to the gender gap (see Figure 3). Some countries experienced a very sharp decrease in their gender gap between 2002 and 2022. The most significant decrease was registered in Malta, where women expected to work 20.4 years less than men in 2002 and 6.8 years in 2022, corresponding to a 13.6 years reduction in the gender gap between 2002 and 2022. Note that Malta was also the country with the largest gender gap in the expected duration of working life in 2002.
Spain (12.1 years in 2002 and 3.7 years in 2022), Luxembourg (10.2 years in 2002 and 3.0 years in 2022), Greece (12.7 years in 2002 and 7.0 years in 2022) and Ireland (11.6 years in 2002 and 6.0 years in 2022) also recorded a noticeable decrease in their gender gap.
By contrast, Romania recorded an increase in the gender gap in the same period, as women expected to work 4.0 years less than men in 2002 and 6.9 years less than men in 2022 (leading to a 2.9 year rise in the gender gap).
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_dwl_a)
Source data for tables and graphs
Methods and definitions
The duration of working life is calculated using the participation rates (also called “activity rates”) from the Labour Force Survey and life tables from demography statistics. Both the activity rates (in 5 year bands) and the complete life tables (per single year) are published by Eurostat.
Data sources
Source: The European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) is the largest European household sample survey providing quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 years and over as well as on persons outside the labour force. It covers residents in private households. Conscripts in military or compulsory community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS is based on the same target populations, and uses the same definitions, in all countries, which means that the results are comparable among the countries. The EU-LFS is an important source of information about situations and trends in the national and EU labour markets. Each quarter around 1.8 million interviews are conducted throughout the participating countries to obtain statistical information for some 100 variables. Due to the variety of information and the large sample size, the EU-LFS is also an important source for other European statistics like Education statistics or Regional statistics.
Reference period: Yearly results are obtained as averages of the four quarters in the year.
Coverage: The results from the survey currently cover all European Union Member States, the EFTA Member States Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, as well as the candidate countries Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye.
For Cyprus, the survey covers only the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.
European aggregates: EU refers to the totality of the EU of 27 Member States. If data are unavailable for a country, the calculation of the corresponding aggregates takes into account the data for the same country for the most recent period available. Such cases are indicated.
Country notes
In Germany, from the first quarter of 2020 onwards, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is part of a new system of integrated household surveys. Technical issues and the COVID-19 crisis has had a great impact on data collection processes in 2020, resulting in low response rates and a possibly biased sample. For more information, see here.
In the Netherlands, since 2021 LFS data is collected by using a rolling reference week instead of a fixed reference week, i.e. interviewed persons are asked about the situation of the week before the interview rather than a pre-selected week.
Definitions
The concepts and definitions used in the EU-LFS follow the resolutions of the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (the ICLS, organised by the International Labour Organisation, the ILO). In particular, employed people comprise:
(a) persons who during the reference week worked for at least one hour for pay or profit or family gain;
(b) persons who were not at work during the reference week but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent.
The LFS employment concept differs from national accounts domestic employment, as the latter sets no limit on type of household, includes the non-resident population contributing to national GDP and excludes resident population contributing to the GDP of a different country.
Time series
Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 came into force on 1 January 2021 and possibly induced a break in the LFS time series for several EU Member States. In order to monitor the evolution of employment and unemployment despite of the break in the time series, Member States assessed the impact of the break in their country and computed impact factors or break corrected data for a set of indicators. Break corrected data are published for the LFS main indicators.
More information
More information on the LFS can be found via the online publication EU Labour Force Survey, which includes eight articles on the technical and methodological aspects of the survey. The EU-LFS methodology in force from the 2021 data collection onwards is described in methodology from 2021 onwards. Detailed information on coding lists, explanatory notes and classifications used over time can be found under documentation.
Context
The expected duration of working life indicator was developed at the request of the Employment Committee indicators group under the EU 2020 strategy. It uses life expectancy tables and participation rates as input for the calculation. The methodology was developed at the Ministry of Labour of Finland, in a paper by Helka Hytti and Ilkka Nio.
A common misunderstanding in the public debate on this indicator is that it shows how long persons must or should work. This is not the case. The indicator is purely descriptive and shows what is happening, not what should happen.
As it is an average computed over all adults in the country, the indicator is heavily influenced by the number of persons outside the labour force in a country. In other words, it does not make any claims about how many years the persons who are in employment, work. It rather shows the combined effect of:
- what proportion of the adult population is in the labour force (being employed or unemployed) in each year of their life,
- and the life expectancy.
Most of the duration of working life can be explained by the participation rate. An illustration for the total population, comparing the expected duration working life with the participation rate in each country, is presented in Figure 4.
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_dwl_a) and (lfsa_argan)