Six out of ten retirees receive a primary pension below 1,000 euros, while 41.45% exceed this amount, according to data from the HELIOS report for December 2025. Specifically, 283,359 retirees receive pensions up to 500 euros and 861,397 have pensions between 500 and 1,000 euros. 810,518 retirees receive pensions above 1,000 euros monthly.
Read: February 2026 pensions: Earlier payments to retirees – See the dates
Retirees: Six out of ten with primary pension below 1,000 euros
The HELIOS report highlights that the total number of retirees in the country stands at 2,527,531 and monthly pension expenditure amounts to 2.7 billion euros. In December, a total of 4,729,261 pensions were paid, of which 2,896,640 were primary, 1,393,216 supplementary and 439,405 dividends.
The relevant information material states that: «Analyzing pension data (primary, supplementary and dividends) in scales based on pension amount (Section S.5 of the Appendix), it emerges that: the majority of primary pensions falls within the 500-1000€ range. Also, a significant percentage of primary old-age pensions (approximately 41.45%) exceeds 1,000€. It should be noted that this analysis concerns pensions and not retiree income. The «old-age» category includes the social solidarity allowance for uninsured elderly people from OPEKA. The amounts in each case include tax deductions, health contributions and AKAGE».
Pension gap between public and private sector
Additionally, the pension gap between public and private sectors persists. The average primary old-age pension for new public sector retirees was 1,425 euros gross, while for retirees from private sector funds the average primary old-age pension reached 893 euros. Old-age retirees from the public sector receive 59.5% higher pensions compared to private sector retirees.
Pension differences
The pension differences are primarily due to the fact that most private sector retirees retire with fewer than 40 years of insurance, while the majority of public sector old-age retirees approach the 40-year mark.
Regarding the distribution of retirees based on their income and age, the report notes the following:
- 25.01% of retirees are over 81 years old,
- 35.65% are between 71 and 80 years old,
- 36.29% are between 51 and 70 years old
- while only 1.42% are retirees under 25 years old.
According to the report data, retirees aged between 61-70 receive the highest pension amounts, while the report observes that the majority of male retirees are aged between 66-70 (20.41%), while female retirees (17.59% of the total) are aged between 71-75 years.
Finally, it’s worth noting that for calculating average pension income, all pension categories (old-age, death, disability) that a retiree may receive are summed up.
