South Korea topped the anti-rating of countries by the poverty level among pensioners

Almost 40% of people over the age of 66 in South Korea live below the poverty line. The country has the highest score among OECD countries, while the best situation is recorded in Norway.

Based on Visual Capitalist OECD Income Distribution Database, South Korea has the highest relative poverty rate among the elderly.

The study took into account people of age 66 years and older, and the poverty line was considered to be income below half of the median household income in the respective country. That is, the indicator characterizes the situation of elderly people compared to the general level of income in their country.

South Korea is in first place

In South Korea 39.8% of people aged 66+ live below the poverty line. This is 5.5 percentage points more than in Latvia, which took second place.

One of the reasons for this result is the relatively late creation of the country's state pension system. The national pension system of South Korea was introduced only in in 1988, so the older generation did not have enough time to accumulate significant pension rights.

At the same time, the overall level of poverty in the country is 14.9%, and among children - 8.5%.

Who else got into the anti-rating

The ten countries with the highest share of elderly people below the poverty line include:

Latvia - 34.3%, Croatia - 30.7%, Estonia - 29.8%, Lithuania - 25.9%, Costa Rica - 25.8%, USA - 22.9%, Bulgaria - 17.9%, Switzerland - 17.8% and Israel - 16%.

The Baltic countries stand out in particular. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania entered the top five at the same time, and the average poverty rate among the elderly in these three countries is about 30%.

For comparison, the average indicator for all 32 sample countries is 14.8%.

The USA is ahead of Germany and Great Britain

The USA was in seventh place with the indicator 22.9%.

This is significantly higher than in a number of large European economies. In Great Britain, the figure is 15%, in Germany - 14.5%, and in Italy - 12.3%.

Where are the richest pensioners

At the opposite end of the ranking are countries where the share of elderly people below the relative poverty line is less than 5%.

The lowest indicator has Norway — only 3.2%. It is followed by the Czech Republic — 3.6%, the Netherlands — 4.6%, and Slovakia — 4.7%.

Thus, South Korea's figure is almost 12.5 times higherthan in Norway.

And what is happening in Ukraine

Ukraine is not a member of the OECD, so it is not included in the international ranking.

At the same time, according to the assessment of the head of the parliamentary committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, more than 7 million of approximately 10.5 million Ukrainian pensioners live below the poverty line.

It is important that this an estimate of a people's deputy, not official statistics. Currently, State Statistics and the Pension Fund do not publish actual individual data on the level of poverty among pensioners, so it is impossible to independently verify the methodology for calculating this figure.

At the same time, the general situation with the incomes of the population remains difficult. According to the World Bank, the level of poverty in Ukraine in 2025 approached 37%, while in 2021 it was about 20%.

Source: Visual Capitalist, OECD, Ministry of Finance.