Baby boomers push up pension spending

The Dutch government spent 15.8 billion euro on state old age pensions in the first half of 2011. This is 6 percent more than in the same period last year. The increase is larger than in recent years. One important reason for this is that fist group of baby boomers reached pensionable age this year.

Spending on state old age pensions

Spending on pensions 0.9 billion up

Government spending on state old age pensions was 0.9 billion higher in the first half of 2011 than in the same period in 2010. The increase is larger than in preceding years. The main reason for this is that baby boomers born in 1946 reached pensionable age this year. The number of babies born in 1946 was the highest ever in the Netherlands. On 1 January 2011, 234 thousand of them were still alive.

At the end of June 2011, nearly 3 million state old age pensions were being paid. This is 97 thousand more than twelve months previously.

Spending on pensions, total and per capita

State pensions cost over 1,700 euro per capita

In 2010, state old age pensions accounted for 9.5 percent of government spending. Ten years ago they accounted for more than 10 percent. In 2010, pensions cost each inhabitant of the Netherlands 1,722 euro. This is over 500 euro more than 10 years ago. After correction for inflation, it is nearly 206 euro more.

Top 10 pension spending abroad

More than 1 billion euro in pensions paid abroad

More than 1 billion euro was paid in pensions to 287 thousand pensioners living abroad in 2010. This is nearly 4 percent of total spending on state pensions. One third of spending abroad was for pensioners living in neighbouring countries Germany and Belgium. More than 12 percent was spent on over-65s living in Spain. Partly as a result of remigration, 8 and 6 percent of pensions paid abroad went to Turkey and Morocco respectively.

Total spending on pensions abroad was nearly 40 percent higher in 2010 than in 2005. In the same period, pensions paid in the Netherlands rose by more than one fifth.
The amount spent on pensions in Germany rose relatively particularly strongly, by nearly 60 percent.

Linda Peters