Women aged 65 and over in the European Union continued to receive significantly lower pensions than men in 2024, according to newly released Eurostat data. Cyprus records a wider gap than the EU average.
The figures show that pension income disparities remain substantial across member states, with notable variation depending on whether average or median values are used.
Average pension gap across the EU
In 2024, the average pension for women aged 65 and over in the European Union was 24.5% lower than that of men. In Cyprus, the corresponding gap stood at 29%.
The largest gaps based on average pensions were recorded in Malta at 40.3%, the Netherlands at 36.3% and Austria at 35.6%.
The smallest gaps were observed in Estonia at 5.6%, followed by Slovakia at 8.4% and Hungary at 9.6%.
Median pension gap comparison
In addition to calculations based on average pensions, Eurostat also publishes the gender gap using median pension values. The median represents the middle value separating the higher half of pensions from the lower half and is less sensitive to a small number of extremely high or low pension values.
Using median figures, women’s pensions in the EU were 24.9% lower than those of men.
The largest median pension gaps were recorded in Luxembourg at 43.3%, Spain at 41.1% and the Netherlands at 39.6%.
The smallest gaps were observed in Estonia at minus 0.3%, Hungary at 0.4% and Denmark at 2.7%.
Differences between average and median results
When comparing average and median calculations, the largest differences were recorded in Denmark, where the gap in average pensions was 12.9 percentage points higher than the gap in median pensions. This was followed by Belgium at 11.0 percentage points and Hungary at 9.2 percentage points.
In some countries, the opposite pattern was recorded, with the median pension gap higher than the average pension gap. The most notable differences were observed in Spain at minus 11.9 percentage points, Luxembourg at minus 10.6 percentage points and Portugal at minus 6.5 percentage points.