Switzerland has overtaken Norway to become the country with the best retirement security in 2024, according to the Natixis Investment Managers (IM) Global Retirement Index (GRI).

The country received an overall score of 82 per cent, putting Norway in second place with a score of 81 per cent.

Among the sub-indices, Switzerland was third for ‘Health Retirement’, second for ‘Finances in Retirement’, fifth for ‘Material Wellbeing’, and sixth for ‘Quality of Life’.

Meanwhile, Norway slipped from first to sixth place in the Material Wellbeing sub-index and down to 12th in the Finances in Retirement sub-index due to decreases in tax pressure indicator, old-age dependency and governance.

Iceland maintained its third place ranking despite experiencing declines in most sub-indices, most notably in the Health Retirement sub-index where it fell seven places to 11th.

Sweden and Finland experienced the greatest falls in their positions in the GRI rankings, from 14th to 17th and from 13th to 18th respectively.

Eight of the top 10 countries in the GRI were in Europe, with Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, and Denmark in fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and ninth place respectively.

The UK rose two places in the index over the past year, outperforming France, Finland, and Sweden, with the improvement driven by increases in health spending per capita.

Luxembourg’s Health Retirement sub-index score rose by 4 percentage points to take top stop in the category, driven by an increase in its life expectancy score, overtaking Norway.

Meanwhile, Ireland took the number one spot in the Finances in Retirement sub-index after improving its score by 1 percentage point to 74 per cent on account of steadily reducing government debt.

Slovenia and Belgium each rose by four ranking spots in the GRI, with Belgium rising to 15th from 19th and Slovenia rising to 11th from 15th.

“The past few years have seen some big shifts that impact our finances and plans for the future: The ongoing transition from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions, rising public debt bills, short-term shocks like Covid, and geopolitical tensions firing up inflation, all of which drive anxiety about financial futures for individuals,” commented Natixis IM head of Northern Europe and MEACA, Andrew Benton.

“Financial services providers need to be more proactive in helping people to save more – to and through retirement - by offering better support and solutions that are tailored to today’s environment and individual retirement needs, including access to both public and private markets if we are to help prevent a retirement crisis down the line.”

---