Pensions are the most important asset for most Danish savers, representing the largest asset for 60 per cent (2.9 million) Danes, research from Insurance and Pension Denmark (I&P Denmark) has revealed.

The analysis showed that it is largely only younger savers, who have only just started saving for retirement, and older savers, who live off their pension, for whom their pension is not the biggest asset.

In particular, the research suggested that age and ability to build other wealth are the key drivers, as illustrated by the fact that only in the larger university towns and in affluent municipalities is there a relatively low proportion of people for whom pension is the largest asset.

Given these findings, I&P emphasised that the importance of pension assets for Danes' personal finances should not be underestimated, suggesting that improvements to the pension system will benefit most Danes and could contribute to improving the finances of pensioners.

F&P director of pensions, Jan V. Hansen, said: “It is striking how important pension assets are for so many Danes.

"This applies in particular to labour market pensions, which mean that nine out of 10 people in work save up for pension and thus ensure security in old age.

“Pension wealth is generally the largest asset that Danes have, but there are a few exceptions. Among students, pension savings have not yet begun, so free savings may well be more important, even though in terms of kroner and øre, the students do not necessarily have a lot of money in the bank.

“Another group where pensions play a relatively smaller role are citizens in the municipalities north of Copenhagen.

"They actually typically have large pension savings, but even greater wealth in free funds and equity in housing. Roughly speaking, for all other Danes, pension wealth is the largest asset.

“Around half of the pension assets at retirement are made up of the return that has been continuously attributed.

"This underlines the benefit of having a strong and robust pension system in Denmark, and of course it also shows that good conditions for Danes' pension savings ultimately accumulate into cash gains in the form of better finances for pensioners.”

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