From the 32 countries participating in this year’s World Cup, Australia has the people most adequately prepared for retirement, according to research from Scottish Widows.
The pension provider ranked the design and sustainability of pension systems in the 32 nations, according to 10 criteria, based on data from the World Bank, the CIA World Factbook data and Trading Economics database.
According to the index, Australia has the best system with England coming third behind second-placed Denmark.
Scottish Widows put each team through the tournament process, with the country placing higher in the index receiving a 1-0 win against its opposition.
England came top of Group G with maximum points and faced old rivals Germany in the quarter final.
The Three Lions got the better of the current champions, beating them in a World Cup football tournament match for the first time since 1966, the provider stated.
Country | Unweighted score | Ranking |
Australia | 84 | 1st |
Denmark | 98 | 2nd |
England | 102 | 3rd |
Sweden | 106 | 4th |
France | 110 | 5th |
Germany | 110 | 5th |
Iceland | 114 | 7th |
Belgium | 121 | 8th |
Portugal | 123 | 9th |
Japan | 129 | 10th |
Switzerland | 130 | 11th |
Argentina | 156 | 12th |
Russia | 158 | 13th |
Brazil | 160 | 14th |
Saudi Arabia | 160 | 14th |
Spain | 170 | 16th |
Poland | 172 | 17th |
Egypt | 176 | 18th |
Croatia | 181 | 19th |
Korea | 182 | 20th |
Uruguay | 186 | 21st |
Iran | 191 | 22nd |
Costa Rica | 199 | 23rd |
Serbia | 199 | 23rd |
Nigeria | 203 | 25th |
Panama | 203 | 25th |
Colombia | 204 | 27th |
Mexico | 206 | 28th |
Peru | 213 | 29th |
Tunisia | 224 | 30th |
Morocco | 226 | 31st |
Senegal | 245 | 32nd |
According to Robert Cochran, retirement expert at Scottish Widows, the provider had a “lot of fun creating this index and seeing how each country performed through the tournament process”.
There was “a serious point behind this exercise, however, and that was to see how public pension systems perform around the world,” he added.
Mr Cochran argued that there is a great deal the UK can learn from how others are preparing for retirement.
He said: “Our winner Australia, for example, has had an auto-enrolment policy for 25 years - a journey the UK is currently only six years into.
“It takes time for these policies to have their desired effect but the impact is clear: today, Australians are among the best funded for retirement in the world.
"The results of the Pensions World Cup supports our call to scrap the £10,000 earnings threshold and make auto-enrolment inclusive for more workers.
“We’re also calling on the government to reduce the age at which workers are auto-enrolled from 22 to 18 more quickly than it has proposed.”
In its auto-enrolment review, published in December, the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) announced changes to the current system, but these are only coming to effect in the mid-2020s.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
