Private savings for retirement have increased ‘significantly’ over the past decade, according to a survey by the Finnish Centre for Pensions (ETK), with more than half of people aged 25–67 saving, or having saved, for retirement in 2024.

In particular, saving rates among people under 30 increased compared to previous similar surveys.

In 2024, 45 per cent of under-30-year-olds said they were saving for retirement, compared with only 25 per cent of this age group in 2014.

According to the study, which questioned 1,600 working-age Finns, the most common pension savers were the self-employed, people with above-average incomes, and Finns close to retirement age.

ETK economist, Kati Ahonen, suggested that young people’s knowledge about saving and investing has increased in recent years due to the content available on social media.

“According to our study, young people consider private savings for retirement to be more important for their future financial security than older respondents,” she added.

The survey also asked why respondents were not saving for retirement, with the most common reason (two-thirds) that they did not have the 'financial means' to save.

Other commonly cited reasons were spending money on current expenses and not considering saving for retirement, with around a fifth of the respondents giving these answers.

However, despite the rise in pension savers, the survey revealed a fall in confidence in the pension system as a whole.

Nearly two-thirds of working-age people said they had confidence in the pension system, seven percentage points lower than in a similar survey conducted in 2019.

Younger age groups, women and those with lower levels of education tended to have less confidence in the pension system than other groups.

ETK economist, Sanna Tenhunen, argued that more detailed opinions on the functioning of the pension system had not changed significantly compared to previous years.

“More respondents than before considered the level of pensions paid to current pensioners adequate. But just as many were critical of the adequacy of future pensions and the fairness and clarity of the pension system,” she noted.

“The researchers believe that general global political and economic uncertainty and discussions about pension reform may have influenced opinions about the pension system.

“As there was no information on the content of the pension reform negotiations until the end of 2024 when the survey was conducted, opinions on pensions have remained relatively stable,” Tenhunen concluded.

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