The average monthly pension for people in Finland was €1,977 in 2023, up from €1,845 the previous year, according to data from the Finnish Centre for Pensions (ETK) and Kela.

Total pension expenditure during the year was nearly €38bn, with pensioners accounting for 33 per cent of the Finnish population over 16. In 72 municipalities, more than half of the population received a pension.

The median monthly pension was €1,736, and more than 60 per cent of the pensioners in Finland received a monthly pension of less than €2,000, while 2 per cent of Finns received a monthly pension of more than €5,000.

Most people receiving less than €2,000 were women who earned €1,779, compared to men who received €2,216. The gender pension gap remained unchanged compared to 2022.

In the country as a whole, the proportion of people receiving a disability pension has fallen sharply, as just over 5 per cent of Finns of working age received a disability pension in 2023, compared to just under 7 per cent in 2013.

“High pensions are still rare,” commented ETK statistics planner, Joonas Hautamäki.

“In 2023, for example, around 2 per cent of pension recipients received a monthly pension of more than €5,000 in 2023. Most of them were men.”

Of the almost €38bn of pension expenditure in 2023, €34.1bn were earnings-related pensions, while Kela paid national and guaranteed pensions of almost €2.6bn.

The majority (90 per cent) of pensions paid were in the form of old-age pensions.

ETK’s and Kela’s data did not include people who get a part-time pension, a partial old-age pension or only a survivors’ pension.

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