Increase in expected duration of working life in the EU The expected duration of working life in the EU in 2019 was 35.9 years. This was 0.2 years longer than in 2018, and 3.6 years longer than in 2000. The gender gap in 2019 has shrunk compared with almost 20 years ago: 4.9 years difference against 7.1 years in 2000. In 2019, the estimated expected duration of working life for men was 38.3 years while for women it was 33.4 years (aged 15 years and more). The expected average duration among the EU Member States ranged from 32.0 years in Italy to 42.0 years in Sweden. This was exceeded at both ends of the range by non-EU countries: Turkey (29.3 years) and Iceland (45.8 years).

Sweden and the Netherlands with the longest working life In the European Union, there is a clear east/west division regarding the average expected duration of working life, with only Italy (32.0 years in 2019), Belgium (33.6) and Luxembourg (33.9) as exceptions on the western side (Map 1). These three countries have on average shorter working lives compared with the other western countries, where the expected number of working years is in the range 35 to 40 years. Sweden (42.0 years) and the Netherlands (41.0) had the longest expected duration of working life in the EU-27 in 2019. These were the only two EU Member States where the expected number of working years was above 40. On the other hand, Italy (32.0 years), Croatia (32.5) and Greece (33.2) had the shortest expected working life. The Baltic countries are closer to the western part of Europe in terms of duration of working life; indeed Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia recorded 39.0, 37.1 and 36.8 years respectively in 2019. It is also worth noticing that the expected number of working years in Cyprus (37.5 years) exceeded the one in its neighbouring countries.

Source: Eurostat Map 1: Estimated duration of working life in years for a person who is 15 years old in 2019, by countryEurostat (lfsi_dwl_a) Overall, countries can be divided into five groups. The first group is made of the low ranking countries, where the expected duration of working life is below 33 years, including Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, North-Macedonia and Turkey. Next is the group of countries where the expected duration of working life is within the range of 33 to 35 years. This group includes Greece, Belgium, Poland, Romania, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia. Spain, France, Slovenia, Czechia, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, Cyprus and Austria shape the third group, which corresponds to a working life of 35 to 38 years. Group number four consists of countries with an estimated working life of 38 to 40 years, i.e. Portugal, Finland, Estonia, Germany, the United Kingdom and Norway. Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Iceland shape the last group with an expected working life of 40 years and over.

Men expected to work longer than women In 2019, the duration of working life was longer for men than for women in all countries, with the exception of Latvia and Lithuania (Figure 1). In Latvia there was no difference in the expected years between sexes, while in Lithuania, women were expected to work longer than men (0.8 years). Among the EU Member States, Malta had the largest gender gap at 9.3 years, followed by Italy at 9.1 years. This gap was, however, bigger in the two candidate countries North Macedonia (10.4 years) and Turkey (19.9 years).

Source: Eurostat Figure 1: Expected duration of working life in years for a person who is 15 years old in 2019, by country and sex.Eurostat (lfsi_dwl_a) Italy is the EU Member State with the shortest working life for women (27.3 years) and Sweden the one with the longest (41.0 years). If including also the non-EU countries, Turkish women are expected to work the shortest (19.1 years) and Icelandic women the longest (43.7 years). For men, the shortest working life is recorded in Croatia (34.5 years) and the longest, among the EU Member States, in the Netherlands and Sweden (43.3 and 42.9 years respectively). The longest overall is recorded in Iceland (47.8 years). Overall, there is no clear obvious relation between the length of the expected working lives and the size of the gender gap. Gender gaps of about 5 years exist in countries with the longest expected working lives, e.g. in the Netherlands. However, Italy, North Macedonia and Turkey have the shortest expected working life and the largest gender gaps: 9.1, 10.4 and 19.9 years respectively.

Evolution of the duration of working life over time: 2000-2019 Gender gap slowly decreasing The EU-27 gender gap has diminished slowly but steadily since the year 2000 (Figure 2). The gap was at 7.1 years in 2000 and reached 4.9 years in 2019. The expected working life for women has increased by 4.7 years while for men it has increased by 2.5 years over this period.

Source: Eurostat Figure 2: Expected duration of working life in time in years for a person who is 15 years old, 2000-2019, EU-27Eurostat (lfsi_dwl_a)

Different trends among countries Changes in the expected duration of working life over the period 2000-2019 vary widely among EU countries (Figure 3). The largest increases of the expected duration over time are recorded in Malta (7.6 years), Hungary (6.9) and Estonia (5.6), while the smallest increases can be found in Denmark (1.7 years) and Greece (1.8). Romania is the only country showing a decrease of the expected duration of working life: with 36.0 years in 2000 and 33.8 years in 2019, a decrease of 2.2 years. Looking at the changes over the same period of the expected duration of working life by country and by sex, more variations can be found. For example, Maltese women saw their expected number of working years increasing by 14.2 years between 2000 and 2019, while Romanian women saw it decreasing by 3.9 years. Also, in Spain the expected duration of working life rose by 8.9 years for women but only by 0.3 years for men.

Source: Eurostat Figure 3: Expected duration of working life in years for a person who is 15 years old, development over time from 2000 to 2019, EU-27Eurostat (lfsi_dwl_a)

Source data for tables and graphs Duration of working life 2019

Data sources 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) as well as the complete (single year) life tables are published by Eurostat.