Pensions

👵 Pensions

How much pensioners in Spain receive, how many workers contribute for each pension and how much weight pensions carry in the economy. These are Social Security contributory pensions (retirement, permanent disability, survivors' (widows' and widowers'), orphans' and dependent relatives' pensions), excluding the civil service pension scheme (clases pasivas) and non-contributory pensions. Amounts are the gross pension for each of the 14 annual payments and are shown adjusted for inflation, in 2025 euros.

The average pension, adjusted for inflation

Between January 2008 and August 2026 the average retirement pension rose from €806 to €1,575 a month, 95% more in euros of each period. Adjusted for inflation, the change is an increase of 33%.

The jumps each January are the annual uprating of pensions; between upratings, inflation erodes purchasing power month by month.

How many contributors there are for each pension

This is the figure most often used to discuss the sustainability of the system: how many people contribute to Social Security (registered contributors, monthly average) for each contributory pension in payment. Since January 2008, the peak was 2.32 in May 2008 and the low 1.77 in January 2014. The number of pensions has grown by 26% over that period.

Pensions compared with wages

Average retirement pension and average gross wage in 2025 euros. To compare them, the pension is spread over 12 months (it is paid in 14 instalments), in the same way as the wage from the Quarterly Labour Cost Survey. In 2025 the average retirement pension was equivalent to 74% of the average wage. This is an approximate replacement rate: it compares the average pension of all retirees with the average wage of that year, not each person's first pension with their last salary.

How much Spain spends on pensions

Spending by all levels of government on the old-age and survivors' (widows' and orphans') functions under Eurostat's COFOG classification, which also includes civil service (clases pasivas) and non-contributory pensions. In 2024 it was 12.6% of GDP, compared with 12.2% for the EU-27 average and 4.7 points more than in 2007. Spain ranks number 6 of the 27 EU countries with data for this spending as a percentage of GDP.

More pensions for an ageing population

Number of pensions per 1,000 inhabitants and per 100 people aged 65 or over (INE municipal register). One person can receive more than one pension (for example, retirement and survivor's), so these figures count pensions, not pensioners.

By autonomous community

Data for 2026 (average of the 9 months published), in 2025 euros. The highest average retirement pension is in País Vasco (€1,853) and the lowest in Extremadura (€1,305). Contributors per pension range from 3.00 in Comunidad de Madrid to 1.31 in Principado de Asturias.

By province

More on State spending by function in Spending and on pay in Wages.

Sources: Social Security, statistics on contributory pensions in payment (monthly books by region and province, as at the 1st of each month, and their historical series since 2008); Social Security, average monthly registrations (series by scheme since 2001 and by province since 2021); Eurostat, general government expenditure by function, gov_10a_exp (COFOG GF1002 old age and GF1003 survivors, % of GDP); INE, municipal register and Quarterly Labour Cost Survey. Amounts deflated with the INE's general CPI (base 2025).