EU working life hits 37.5 years amid stark north-south divide
Eurostat data reveals a widening geographic and gender gap in how long Europeans will work, highlighting the demographic pressures forcing governments to overhaul pension systems.
Workers across the European Union can now expect to spend an average of 37.5 years in the labour force, according to 2025 data from Eurostat. The indicator, which estimates the time a 15-year-old will remain active in the workforce under current conditions, is up from 35.2 years in 2016.
However, this average masks a deepening geographic divide. In the Netherlands, the expected working life spans 44 years, the longest in the bloc. Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Germany and Finland all exceed the 40-year mark. By contrast, workers in Romania face just 32.7 years, followed by Italy at 33 years and Bulgaria at 34.6 years.
A persistent gender gap further complicates the labour market picture. Men in the EU are expected to work 39.5 years, compared to just 35.4 years for women. The divide is most extreme in Italy, where women have the bloc's shortest expected working life at 28.4 years, while Dutch men lead the metric at 45.9 years.
These disparities reflect actual participation patterns rather than statutory retirement ages. Yet they carry serious economic implications as governments grapple with shrinking tax bases and ageing populations. Countries with shorter expected working lives face steeper challenges in funding their social security and healthcare systems without resorting to punitive tax increases or deep spending cuts.
Lawmakers are already responding with often unpopular reforms. Denmark has passed legislation to raise its state pension age to 70 by 2040, linking it to life expectancy. Romania is incrementally aligning women's retirement age with men at 65 by 2035, while also raising the retirement threshold for judges and prosecutors. In France, a controversial reform raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 has survived parliamentary scrutiny, though its implementation was postponed to 2028 to prevent government collapse.
For businesses and investors, these shifting demographics signal tighter labour markets in northern Europe and prolonged structural reforms in the south. As birth rates decline and life expectancy increases, extending working lives remains the primary lever for European governments attempting to balance their budgets.
