The prospect of an increasing retirement age is “not alarming” for young Danes, according to a study by Insurance and Pension Denmark (I&P Denmark).

If life expectancy indexing continues as before, today's 25-year-old Danes will retire at 74, I&P Denmark calculated.

I&P Denmark director of pensions, Jan V. Hansen, commented on the political debate taking place on increases to the retirement age.

"Our survey shows that although there has been a lot of talk about increasing the retirement age, young people today do not have a negative view of having to work for many more years," Hansen said.

The survey found that 40 per cent of young people aged 18-34 expect to work until retirement age and a further 12 per cent expect to work beyond retirement age. More than half are not deterred by an increasing retirement age compared to 25 per cent who believe they can't work that long.

"We can see from analyses and surveys that the closer you get to retirement, the more likely you are to want to give it another go in the labour market. But the fact that a large proportion of young people, despite the much debate about increasing retirement age, can still see themselves spending many years in the labour market is very positive.

“But our study also shows that there is a big difference between young people in the 18-34 age group and their expectations of being able to cope with working life. It is therefore crucial that we also focus on creating as good a labour market as possible to ensure that fewer people need to retire before the state pension age," Hansen concluded.

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