Old age and survivors

Some of the earliest forms of welfare state policy were provisions for aging and benefits for family members of workers who experienced work-related deaths. Today, old-age pensions are the most widespread social security programs around the world.

One of the most comprehensive sources of comparative data for old age and survivor policies is the Social Security Programs Throughout the World series of reports and website maintained by the Social Security Administration of the United States. Many of the pre-internet reports are available as scanned books maintained by the Haithi Trust. Additionally,the International Labour Organization (ILO) offers pension legislation for all its member states in the ILO Legislative Series, which covers the period from 1919 to 1988. For coding pension legislation, these sources were predominantly used.

The variables presented below, refer to the first pension program that was implemented in a country and are part of the so-called PENLEG dataset (Pension Legislation around the World). Information on the coding decisions can be found here. In addition, the PENLEG II - Pension Legislation around the World (Africa, Asia, the Americas) dataset offers annual data on pensions from their origins until today. It comprises 1137 variables on the legal coverage of all pension programs in a country, their introduction dates, pension designs, eligibility criteria, financing modes and benefit generosity.

Indicator name*	Subcategory I	Subcategory II	Subcategory III	Technical name*	Scale*	Short description	Data origin*
Year of introduction of old-age pension program	Old-age	Introduction		old_pension_firstlaw	Date		Original CRC Data
Design of old-age pension program	Old-age	Design		old_pension_firstlaw_design	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Design of old-age pension program, second pillar	Old-age	Design		old_pension_firstlaw_design2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Mode of financing of old-age pension program, aggregate	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_sum	Ordinal		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, state	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_state	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, employer	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_employer	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, employee	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_employee	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, state 1	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_state1	Metric		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, employer 1	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_employer1	Metric		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, employee 1	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_employee1	Metric		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, only	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_only	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, state 2	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_state2	Metric		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, employer 2	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_employer2	Metric		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, employee 2	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_employee2	Metric		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, employer 3	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_employer3	Metric		Original CRC Data
Financing of old-age pension program, employee 3	Old-age	Financing		old_pension_fin_employee3	Metric		Original CRC Data
Restrictions of old-age pension coverage, aggregate	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_rest_sum	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Restrictions of old-age pension coverage, age	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_rest_age	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Restrictions of old-age pension coverage, wage	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_rest_wage	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Restrictions of old-age pension coverage, relatives	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_rest_rel	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Restrictions of old-age pension coverage, other pensions	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_rest_opension	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Restrictions of old-age pension coverage, firm size	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_rest_firm	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Restrictions of old-age pension coverage, geography	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_rest_geo	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, aggregate	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_tot	Metric		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, horizontal	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_hori	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, vertical	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_verti	Metric		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, agriculture 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_agri1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, extractive and manufacturing industry 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_exmain1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, commerce and finance 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_comfin1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, students and apprentices 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_studapp1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, domestic and family workers 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_domwork1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, home workers 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_homework1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, employers 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_employer1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, self-employed 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_selfemp1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, temporary and seasonal workers 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_tempwork1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, foreign workers 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_foreign1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, all citizens 1	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_citizens1	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, agriculture 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_agri2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, extractive and manufacturing industry 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_exmain2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, commerce and finance 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_comfin2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, students and apprentices 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_studapp2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, domestic and family workers 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_domwork2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, home workers 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_homework2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, employers 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_employer2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, self-employed 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_selfemp2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, temporary and seasonal workers 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_tempwork2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, foreign workers 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_foreign2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Coverage of old-age pension, all citizens 2	Old-age	Coverage		old_pension_cov_citizens2	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Regular retirement age, male	Old-age	Eligibility criteria		old_pension_agereg_m	Metric		Original CRC Data
Regular retirement age, female	Old-age	Eligibility criteria		old_pension_agereg_f	Metric		Original CRC Data
Maximal retirement age, male	Old-age	Eligibility criteria		old_pension_agemax_m	Metric		Original CRC Data
Maximal retirement age, female	Old-age	Eligibility criteria		old_pension_agemax_f	Metric		Original CRC Data
Number of regular contribution months, male	Old-age	Eligibility criteria		old_pension_contrireg_m	Metric		Original CRC Data
Number of regular contribution months, female	Old-age	Eligibility criteria		old_pension_contrireg_f	Metric		Original CRC Data
Existence of retirement requirement	Old-age	Eligibility criteria		old_pension_emplceas	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Number of eligibility criteria, aggregate	Old-age	Eligibility criteria		old_pension_agecont_sum	Multinomial		Original CRC Data
Regular benefit of old-age pension program, average workers	Old-age	Benefits		old_pension_reprate	Metric		Original CRC Data
Minimal benefit of old-age pension program	Old-age	Benefits		old_pension_reprate_min	Metric		Original CRC Data
Maximal benefit of old-age pension program	Old-age	Benefits		old_pension_reprate_max	Metric		Original CRC Data