In the Netherlands, more employees work after pension age

On October 21, 2026, Statistics Netherlands, also known as CBS, published new figures about people who keep working after the state pension age. This is the age at which people in the Netherlands can start to receive a pension from the state, and in 2026 it is 67. In the second quarter of 2026, from April to June, 1.7 percent of all employees in the country were older than this age. That was a total of about 152 thousand people. In the first quarter of 2018, the share was 1.2 percent, or about 96 thousand people.

The figures cover employees, meaning people who work under an employment contract. People who run their own business are therefore not part of this count. Since 2013, the state pension age has been raised step by step from 65 to 67. Even so, the number of employees above that age who are still at work has also grown. In April 2026, CBS reported that workers who retired in 2025 were, on average, 66 years and 4 months old. In the same year, 40 percent of workers retired before they reached 67.