The UK has come bottom in a survey of the retirement provisions of the self-employed in 15 countries around the world.
The study, conducted by Aegon, found that 52 per cent of Britain's 4.6 million self-employed people did not have a retirement plan.
That compared with an average of 36 per cent across the other 15 countries, which included examples from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia.
The country that scored top on this metric was India, where only 12 per cent of respondents said they had no retirement plan.
Countries in the developing world - where welfare states are less comprehensive - tended to score better than developed countries.
Brazil, China and Turkey all scored better than developed countries like France, Spain and Australia.
Of the UK respondents that said they did have a retirement plan (44 per cent), only 10 per cent had it "written down", the research found.
Four per cent of respondents ticked the "I don't know" box, implying the percentage of people without a plan could easily be as high as 56 per cent.
More than half of UK respondents (52 per cent), meanwhile, expected be working past the age of 65, while only 20 per cent were confident they would have a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
Only 29 per cent said they had a backup plan to provide them with an income if they found themselves unable to continue working before retirement age.
Almost half of respondents (49 per cent) said they intended to rely on the state pension in retirement, while 40 per cent said they would rely on their own savings.
A study by the Office for National Statistics, released last July, revealed the number self-employed people in Britain had risen from 3.6 million in 2008 to 4.6 million in 2015.
Kate Smith, Aegon's head of pensions, said this rise reflected changes, not just in how people work, but also how people save and plan for retirement.
"Without employer-sponsored plans, the self-employed are flying solo when it comes to pensions," she said.
"Achieving long-term financial security and peace of mind in retirement requires a rigorous approach to saving and proper planning."
She said that, while the self-employed were concerned about their retire, few were doing anything "meaningful" to address their concerns.
"With all the day-to-day pressures involved in working for themselves, many find it difficult to make plans, but taking time to write a pension plan brings many benefits, not least making it immediately tangible."
Aegon's research coincides with the government's first review of the auto-enrolment system, which was launched more than three years ago.
As part of the review, the government will examine proposals to include a wider number of groups - including the self-employed - in the auto-enrolment regime.
Currently there is no government measure to get self-employed people saving into a pension.
Former pensions minister Steve Webb, who is now director of policy at Royal London, has proposed using the National Insurance system to nudge the self-employed into a pension.
His proposal would see National Insurance Contributions (Nics) increased from 9 per cent to 12 per cent. People would then be given the option of either letting the taxman have that extra 3 per cent, or of putting it into their own pension pot.
However, the government's appetite for targeting Nics for the self-employed is in doubt.
In March, chancellor Philip Hammond was forced to back away from a plan to lift the Nics for the self-employed in response to public outcry.
james.fernyhough@ft.com
