How much pension do people get, and what is it like to grow old in the municipality?

The guarantee pension swallows a low income pension

Source: Swedish Pensions Agency, Guarantee pension, amounts before tax for a single person who has lived 40 years in Sweden, according to the page updated 14 October 2026. Up to 6,216 kronor the guarantee pension is reduced krona for krona, and after that by 48 percent of the amount above. The income pension supplement, at most 600 kronor, is paid only to those with between 10,166 and 19,202 kronor in earnings related pension and is not included in the table. The housing supplement, which also shrinks as income rises, is not included either. The totals in the two right hand columns are our own calculation.

1. The lifetime earnings principle: pay counts, not years

   Every krona you earn gives pension rights, and the public pension is based on the sum of a whole life's earnings. That is why 43 years of low pay, part time work or breaks for small children give less than fewer years on higher pay. In 2024 women's median pension was 82 percent of men's, 229,600 against 279,400 kronor a year before tax. The gap is smallest in the public pension, 89 percent, and largest in occupational pensions, 61 percent, since they follow the pay actually received.

   Statistics Sweden (2026), Women's pensions are lower than men's. Kirs and Johannisson (2022), Can pensions become more equal?, Swedish Pensions Agency.

2. The same contribution since 1999, more years to share it over

   The contribution to the public pension has been 18.5 percent of pensionable income since 1999, of which 16 goes to the income pension and 2.5 to the premium pension. Measured against pay it comes to 17.21 percent. Meanwhile we live longer, and pension capital is divided by an annuity divisor that follows expected life expectancy. For someone born in 1938 who retired at 65 the divisor was 15.56. For someone born in 1960 it is 17.07 at the same age, so the same capital gives roughly 9 percent less a month. No higher contribution has been decided. The pension contribution inquiry calculated in 2025 on 18.5 percent of pay and found that in the long run it could raise the public pension by about 7 percent but would barely be felt in the first years. The Pensions Group sent the analysis out for consultation in June 2026.

   SOU 2025:41, Pension levels and the pension contribution. Swedish Pensions Agency regulations on annuity divisors, PFS 2002:11 and PFS 2021:6. Government Offices (2026), The Pensions Group agrees.

3. Coordination: the basic protection tapers off

   The guarantee pension tops up a low income pension but shrinks as your own pension grows, and the housing supplement does the same. Someone with 6,216 kronor in earnings related pension therefore gets the same in total as someone who never worked, and at 9,840 kronor the difference is 1,884 kronor a month before tax. Only at 18,241 kronor does the guarantee pension end. The table above shows the steps.

   Swedish Pensions Agency, Guarantee pension, the worked examples on the page.

4. Higher ages and the target retirement age

   The earliest age for the public pension was raised from 61 to 62 in 2020 and to 63 in 2023, and the guarantee pension went from 65 to 66 the same year. Since 2026 the ages follow a target retirement age, which is 67 for those born 1960 to 1966 and is expected to become 68, 69 and then 70 for later cohorts. Guarantee pension and housing supplement can only be paid from the target age. Someone in a physically demanding job who cannot keep working, but does not get sickness compensation or unemployment benefit either, then lives more years on their own income pension alone. The Swedish Pensions Agency estimated that up to a quarter of the population loses financially from a target age, mainly those on low pay, and that women are overrepresented among them.

   Swedish Pensions Agency, Target retirement age for the public pension. Granbom and Norrby (2016), Which groups gain or lose from a higher retirement age?, Swedish Pensions Agency.

5. A smaller share of pay, and a brake

   The public pension was meant to give about 56 percent of pay. With the target age it is expected to give 51 to 53 percent from 2026. The level fell for a long time because life expectancy rose without the retirement age following. In 2024 new pensioners with average income received a median 50 percent of pay in public pension if they were women and 53 percent if they were men. On top of that there is the balancing mechanism, known as the brake: if pension liabilities exceed assets, for example because wages grow slowly or fewer people work, pensions are indexed up less. The brake lowered income pensions in 2010, 2011 and 2014.

   SOU 2025:41, Pension levels and the pension contribution. Berlin Jarhamn and Kirs (2026), Replacement rates of new retirees. Govt. bill 2014/15:125, A smoother and more current development of income pensions.

6. The reforms, and the criticism of them

   Since 2021 pensions for those with the lowest incomes have been raised in several steps. The income pension supplement was introduced in September 2021 and gives up to 600 kronor a month to those who have worked long on low pay. In August 2022 the guarantee pension was raised by up to about 1,000 kronor a month, and the exempt amount in the housing supplement was raised so the increase was not eaten up. Around a million pensioners got more. The increase replaced an earlier proposal for a guarantee supplement within the housing supplement. Critics argue that the basic protection now reaches so high that the difference between having worked and not having worked is shrinking, and IFAU warned that in some cases having worked could pay off worse. Defenders, among them the pensioner organisations, argue that the lowest pensions were too low to live on, and SPF Seniorerna wanted the guarantee pension and housing supplement raised at once. In June 2026 the Pensions Group agreed to review the entire basic protection.

   Swedish Pensions Agency, Income pension supplement and Effects of the law change for guarantee pension and housing supplement August 2022. Consultation responses on Ds 2022:3 from IFAU and SPF Seniorerna. Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (2024), Now it pays less to work.

This section describes how the rules affect many people and is not based on any single case. The amounts refer to the public pension. Occupational pension and private savings come on top.

Pensions and poverty risk among older people in the Nordics

Sources: OECD, Pensions at a Glance 2025 (net pension for someone who starts work in 2024 on an average wage and works a full career, statutory pension plus the occupational pensions that almost everyone is covered by), Eurostat table ilc_li02 (share with disposable income below 60 percent of the national median, retrieved 2026-10-27), the Swedish Pensions Agency, the Storting, the Folketing, the Finnish Centre for Pensions and the Nordic Council of Ministers' Info Norden. Poverty risk is relative to each country's own median income, so it shows how far behind older people are, not how much they have. The OECD figures are calculated model cases for future retirees, not what today's retirees receive.

1. Do people work longer when the pension age is raised?

   A little. When the earliest age for public pension was raised from 62 to 63 in 2023, an estimated 11 percentage points fewer drew a pension at 62, but the share in work rose by only about 3 percentage points. Some got sickness benefit or unemployment benefit instead. Raising the age for the guarantee pension from 65 to 66 increased employment by just over one percentage point. In Norway, the 2011 reform, which let people keep their full pension while working, led to about 7 more hours of work per week at age 63.

   Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (2025), Effects of higher age limits in the pension system, report 2025:12. Schaftenaar and Sundén (2025), More older people in work?, Swedish Pensions Agency. Hernæs, Markussen, Piggott and Røed (2016), Journal of Public Economics.

2. Why do women get lower pensions?

   Mainly because the pension is based on lifetime earnings, and women on average have lower pay and work part time more often. The gap in public pension has narrowed to 20 percent (2021). Including occupational pension and other income, retired women have almost 30 percent lower disposable income than men (2019). The guarantee pension and housing supplement even out some of it. Even if working life became fully equal today, it would take 40 to 50 years before new pensions did.

   Kirs and Johannisson (2022), Can pensions become more equal?, Swedish Pensions Agency.

3. How does retiring affect your health?

   It can be good for health, at least in some jobs. When Swedish Armed Forces employees from age 55 were offered early retirement, both mortality and hospital care fell among them between ages 56 and 70. The study covers a single occupational group, so the result cannot be applied to everyone.

   Hallberg, Johansson and Josephson (2015), Journal of Health Economics.

4. Does elder care get better or worse when private companies run it?

   It depends on who owns them. When municipalities opened elder care to private providers between 1990 and 2009, mortality among older people fell, and the improvement was linked to more competition. A later study of 2,639 care homes between 2012 and 2019 found that homes run by private equity firms and listed groups did worse on most quality measures than other private companies and non-profit providers.

   Bergman, Johansson, Lundberg and Spagnolo (2016), Journal of Health Economics. Broms, Dahlström and Nistotskaya (2024), Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.

5. What happens when fewer get a place in a care home?

   The family takes over. Between 2000 and the early 2010s, one in four places in residential care disappeared, and home care did not grow enough to make up for it. Instead, help from adult children increased in all groups. Daughters mainly helped older people with less education, while those with more education more often got help from sons or bought help privately. Working-class daughters are most affected by the cuts.

   Ulmanen and Szebehely (2015), International Journal of Social Welfare. National Board of Health and Welfare (2026), Health and social care for older people, status report 2026.

6. How are relatives, most often daughters, affected when care is cut?

   It shows at work. When Norway expanded home care after a reform in 1998, long spells of absence from work fell among daughters of single elderly parents, most among daughters without siblings. No effect was seen among sons. This suggests that public care can replace daughters' help, so that daughters can work more when care is expanded.

   Løken, Lundberg and Riise (2017), Journal of Human Resources.

7. Is Nordic care still for everyone?

   Less than before. In all four countries studied, elder care has become less universal, but more so in Finland and Sweden than in Denmark and Norway. More people get care from for-profit companies, more help comes from family and more people pay themselves. This has happened without rights being formally removed, but it threatens the levelling between classes and between women and men that the Nordic welfare states have stood for.

   Szebehely and Meagher (2018), Journal of European Social Policy.

8. Can the pension system cope with us living longer?

   Yes, financially, but the price is paid in the size of the pension. The income pension is divided by the number of years it is expected to be paid, so a longer life gives a lower monthly amount unless you retire later. At the end of 2025, the income pension's assets were 15 percent larger than its liabilities. Pension levels fell for a long time but have turned upward since the age limits were raised in 2023, because more people delay drawing their pension.

   Swedish Pensions Agency (2026), Orange Report 2025. Berlin Jarhamn and Kirs (2026), Replacement rates of new retirees.