Introduction • Retirement age and life expectancy – European context • Life expectancy, evolution and level in Romania • Economic participation • Three concluding remarks

1. introduction

The mass media unexpectedly intensified the discussion of raising the retirement age. They appeared not because this issue is relevant in the government, but because this topic can be used for disagreements in the ruling coalition, in particular, which and who adopted some provisions on retirement in the PNRR. “Rotar” is coming. The boisterous minister sympathizes with the Romanian people, saying, among other things: “I don’t understand what these people were thinking when they went through these aspects in the PNRR, because of course they didn’t think about the people,” “Why should we change a good thing that working? I do not see. Just because some, from my point of view, those who wrote in PNRR hate Romanian citizens? and “…first, we must take care of the life expectancy of Romanian citizens and especially the healthy life expectancy, because we must not put the visa before the ox.” (Agerpres, March 20, 2023). Apparently, this was the main and priority goal of the governors and the political class after 1989 – “…the longevity of Romanian citizens and especially the hope for a healthy life…”. after thirty-four For many years, Romania has been at the bottom of the European ranking in terms of life expectancy. However, the same minister knows very well that in 2023 we in the Pension House do not have an IT system that would allow us to quickly process any statistics and information about pensioners and automatically generate a pension coupon and online solutions The problems of the public pension of Romanians arose abroad , their number is growing rapidly.

Readers will find in the article details about the level of life expectancy at the age of 60, 65 and 70 in our country, what is behind the low values, how they developed after 2000, and to what extent the development and level could motivate an increase in the retirement age.

2. Retirement age and life expectancy – the European context

The standard retirement age in our country is 65 for men and 62 for women, and will reach 63 in 2030. Where is Romania in the European context with these values?

Chart 1 gives us these frameworks for 2020. The retirement age is one of the lowest for women and almost average for men. It is possible to note the dominance of the values ​​of 65 and 67 years, especially in men. The highest figure is 67 for both men and women in Norway, Iceland, Italy and Ireland. The lowest indicators are observed in the former communist countries. Austria also belongs to this group for women, but values ​​not far from the lowest can be observed in Malta, Belgium, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Austria for men and in Malta and Switzerland for women. This combination of countries highlights significant differences in national pension laws and practices.

Data on retirement age by country and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). I meant that national legislation and practice have many peculiarities regarding this age, and unifying the publication of data by country is not an easy task. The OECD data for 2000 differ from the data published by Eurostat [1]. The retirement age for a person entering the labor market at 22 and the effective age of leaving the labor market have been published. Eurostat publishes data on the statutory retirement age. This data for the member states of the European Union is preferred along with other Eurostat data used in the article.

Placing the value of life expectancy at age 65 in 2019, unaffected by the pandemic, next to the statutory retirement age in Figure 2, we can see where our country stands in the European context and to what extent it is a link between the level life expectancy at age 65 and statutory retirement age.

Romania’s life expectancy position is dismal, with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary for men and Bulgaria and Hungary for women far from the EU-27 average, let alone above the average. The group of countries with low values ​​is dominated by former communist countries. There is a correspondence between the level of life expectancy at the age of 65 and the level of the statutory retirement age. A few exceptions are related to national features of the retirement age, for example, the provisions of Austria and Poland for women. It should be noted that there are countries in which, according to legal provisions, the retirement age increases with the increase in life expectancy.

Clarification may be helpful. Life expectancy at birth calculated for the calendar year indicates the average number of years that a live-born boy and girl would live if the generation of which it is a part had throughout its life, until its numerical exhaustion (its disappearance), conditionally 100 years, age -specific mortality for calendar year. One generation hypothetical. The same life expectancy at age 65 indicates the average number of years a person, male and female, who reached the exact age (birthday) of 65 would live in the same hypothetical generation and under the same conditions. A demographic tool used to determine life expectancy by age mortality table. In an expanded form, the mortality table has 9 indicators by age. Life expectancy in a calendar year is a hypothetical indicator designed to determine age-specific mortality rates in this year among men and women in terms of lifetime. The average life expectancy is determined only for o a real generation, for which there are mortality rates in all age groups, from 0 to 100 years. This is a real value. This can only be determined after a generation has passed. The interested reader can find more detailed information on life expectancy and life expectancy, differences and similarities in the Appendix.

The factors that determine the level of life expectancy of women and men aged 65 in 2019 cannot be different from the indicators of life expectancy at birth, they are the same economic, social, cultural, medical and environmental factors, especially because the second half of the 20th century, to massive reductions in mortality and steady progress in life expectancy at all ages. Positive accumulations in determinants consolidated over time with dramatic effects on mortality and life expectancy. How the values ​​of life expectancy at age 65 for women and men in European countries in 2019 (not affected by the pandemic) compare, we can see in Figure 3. Read the full article and comment on Contributors.ro