Fairly recently I ran some items here regarding retirement. That made me curious about retirement ages around the world.
And by that, I mean around the "developed world". I am friends, for example, with a Catholic Priest who reached 70 years of age here in our diocese, the retirement age for Catholic clerics hereabouts. He was from Nigeria, and went back. He told me that "In Nigeria, priests don't retire".
That was very admirable of him, as he could have retired. But in a larger sense, that's probably true of most Africans. No retirement. . . ever.
Something to ponder.
Anyhow, here's a chart (not mine) that I picked up from this website:
Retirement ages around the world
Pretty revealing.
So, age wise, for full retirement, the US age of 66, going to 67 soon, is not unusual. The old retirement age of 65, still apparently the Canadian one, isn't unusual either.
Indonesia has the absolute bottom at 56 for the year this chart was made, but It's boosting it to 65. South Africa has the next lowest retirement age of 60, but its means tested, so I don't really know how that works.
So, all in all, the US retirement age is pretty normal.
Now, that's the charts. What is the US average retirement age?
63.
There are a variety of factors in that, including those who wanted to retire early and did, those retired due to illness and the economy, and other factors. According to some statistics I've seen, most Americans actually retire younger than they wished to for a variety of reasons. Canadians make it closer to the system's target, with an average retirement age of 65. Germans make it to 66 before they retire, on average. Greeks retire, on average, at 61.
The military, it might be noted, wants you out the door at age 62, with some exceptions:
§1251. Age 62: regular commissioned officers in grades below general and flag officer grades; exceptions
(a) General Rule.—Unless retired or separated earlier, each regular commissioned officer of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Space Force (other than an officer covered by section 1252 of this title or a commissioned warrant officer) serving in a grade below brigadier general or rear admiral (lower half), in the case of an officer in the Navy, shall be retired or separated, as specified in subsection (e), on the first day of the month following the month in which the officer becomes 62 years of age.
(b) Deferred Retirement or Separation of Health Professions Officers.—(1) The Secretary of the military department concerned may, subject to subsection (d), defer the retirement or separation under subsection (a) of a health professions officer if during the period of the deferment the officer—
(A) will be performing duties consisting primarily of providing patient care or performing other clinical duties; or
(B) is in a category of officers designated under subparagraph (D) of paragraph (2) whose duties will consist primarily of the duties described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of such subparagraph.
(2) For purposes of this subsection, a health professions officer is—
(A) a medical officer;
(B) a dental officer;
(C) an officer in the Army Nurse Corps, an officer in the Navy Nurse Corps, or an officer in the Air Force designated as a nurse; or
(D) an officer in a category of officers designated by the Secretary of the military department concerned for the purposes of this paragraph as consisting of officers whose duties consist primarily of—
(i) providing health care;
(ii) performing other clinical care; or
(iii) performing health care-related administrative duties.
(c) Deferred Retirement or Separation of Other Officers.—The Secretary of the military department concerned may, subject to subsection (d), defer the retirement or separation under subsection (a) of any officer other than a health professions officer described in subsection (b)(2) if the Secretary determines that such deferral is in the best interest of the military department concerned.
(d) Limitation on Deferment of Retirements.—(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), a deferment under subsection (b) or (c) may not extend beyond the first day of the month following the month in which the officer becomes 68 years of age.
(2) The Secretary of the military department concerned may extend a deferment under subsection (b) or (c) beyond the day referred to in paragraph (1) if the Secretary determines that extension of the deferment is necessary for the needs of the military department concerned. Such an extension shall be made on a case-by-case basis and shall be for such period as the Secretary considers appropriate.
(e) Retirement or Separation Based on Years of Creditable Service.—(1) The following rules shall apply to a regular commissioned officer who is to be retired or separated under subsection (a):
(A) If the officer has at least 6 but fewer than 20 years of creditable service, the officer shall be separated, with separation pay computed under section 1174(d)(1) of this title.
(B) If the officer has fewer than 6 years of creditable service, the officer shall be separated under subsection (a).
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), in the case of a regular commissioned officer who was added to the retired list before the date of the enactment of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, the officer shall be retired, with retired pay computed under section 1401 of this title.
At least in my experience, most servicemen I've known, Regular and Reserve, have retired before age 60, with some retiring as soon as they have twenty years of service and then going on to other things, and others just retiring in their 50s.
What to make of this. Well, the ages are what they are. On average, folks retire right around 63 for one reason or another.
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