For the third year on the trot, the Danish pension system has been voted the best by the global retirement and investment consulting firm Mercer and the Australian Centre for Financial Studies, which every year evaluates the set-ups in 25 countries.
In Mercer's Global Pension Index 2014 (here in English), Denmark was the only nation to be given an 'A' grade, scoring 82.4 out of 100 – an improvement from the 80.2 it scored last year.
The index described the Danish pension scheme as “a first class and robust retirement income system that delivers good benefits, is sustainable and has a high level of integrity”.
“It's great that the Danish pension system has been voted the world's best for the third straight year and is in a league of its own,” Jan V Hansen, the deputy head of the pension association Forsikring & Pension, said according to Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
“It means a lot to the average Dane's economy. Poverty among pensioners is practically non-existent.”
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Room for improvement
According to the index report, the Danish system can be improved by raising the level of household savings, introducing arrangements to protect the interests of both parties in a divorce, increasing the labour force participation rate, and providing greater protection for members’ accrued benefits in the case of fraud, mismanagement or provider insolvency.
The index, which evaluated more than 50 parameters in each country's pension system, ranked Australia (79.9) and the Netherlands (79.2) in second and third behind the Danes, with Finland (74.3), Switzerland (73.9) and Sweden (73.4) making up the top six.
Other notables include Canada (69.1), the UK (67.6), the US (57.9), Germany (62.2) and China (49.0), while South Korea (43.6) and India (43.5) brought up the rear.
