Definition

Old-age pension benefits are treated as public when relevant financial flows are controlled by general government (i.e. central and local governments or social security funds). Pension benefits provided by governments to their own employees and paid directly out of the government's current budget are also considered to be public. Public pensions are generally financed on a PAYGS basis, but also include some funded arrangements. All pension benefits not provided by general government are within the private domain.

Private expenditures on pensions include payments made to private pension plan members (or dependants) after retirement. All types of plans are included (occupational and personal, mandatory and voluntary, funded and book reserved), covering persons working in both the public and private sectors.

Outlays on public and private pension benefits are expressed as a percentage of GDP. The data are shown for old-age benefits only (i.e. they do not include survivors' benefits).

For more statistics on economic, environmental and social issues visit online the OECD Factbook 2010.