Social Security has published the latest data on contributory pensions in Spain in which the Government has paid a total of 10.4 million pensions to almost 9.4 million people with a payroll of 13,675.8 million euros. This amount includes the different types of contributory pensions such as retirement, widowhood, permanent disability, orphanhood and for family members.
The average pension reaches 1,315.3 euros per month, with an increase of 4.4% compared to the same month in 2024. The average retirement pension, which is received by nearly 6.6 million people (two thirds of the total) is 1,510.1 euros per month, 4.3% higher than last year. 59.1% of those who receive a retirement pension as their main benefit are men.
You may be interested
Two retirees begin to collect their retirement pension and the Treasury demands 50,013.09 euros of personal income tax: the court annuls the settlement because they are exempt
A retired notary must return 59,161.10 euros to Social Security after collecting the pension while exercising his public office: justice supports it
If the regimes are taken into account, the amount of the average retirement pension in the General Regime is 1,668.7 euros per month, in the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) it is 1,011.6 euros per month, in Coal Mining the amount of the average pension reaches 2,909 euros and 1,672.8 euros in the Special Regime for Workers of the Mar.
It must be remembered that in the case of Coal Mining, the contribution bases are higher than those of other workers, which explains the higher amount of their pensions. Average pensions rise every month due to two factors: on the one hand, the new additions make the amount higher because they have a higher contribution base since the standard of living also increases. On the other hand, cancellations are usually for smaller amounts, which causes the average to increase.
The average widow’s pension is 936.7 euros per month, and it is the main pension for 1.5 million people, 95.7% of whom are women. Regarding new retirement registrations, the system average is 1,675.6 euros, according to data for the month of September. In the General Regime, the average pension for new retirement registrations rises to 1,780.8 euros per month.
The highest average pension
In the General Regime, the average retirement pension stands at 1,510.1 euros per month, 4.3% higher than a year ago. As usual, self-employed pensioners continue to have the lowest amounts with 1,011.6 euros, not even reaching the SMI (Interprofessional Minimum Wage).
When looking at other regimes, the sector with the highest average pension is Coal Mining, where the amount reaches 2,909 euros, above others such as the Sea sector with an average of 1,672.8 euros.
2,199.5 million euros have been allocated to pay the widow’s pension, and the payroll in the case of permanent disability benefits is 1,262.8 million, orphanhood benefits is 177.7 million euros and benefits for family members are 36.6 million.
The monthly pension payroll reached 13,675.8 million euros in the month of October. As is normal and has been seen in the pension data published by Social Security in previous months, almost three quarters correspond to the retirement pension, which is 73% of the total (9,999.2 million euros).
New registrations and increase in delayed retirement
Until the month of September (inclusive), which is the latest data available, 274,873 new retirement registrations have been registered. Delayed retirements are now 11.2% of the total new registrations, compared to 4.8% in 2019. Overall, 73.1% of registrations occur at the ordinary retirement age or later, 13.3 percentage points more than in 2019, thanks largely to the incentives to bring the access age closer to the legal retirement age.
Early retirements, for their part, fell 13.1 percentage points in six years, reaching a minimum, since they fell from 40 to 26.9% of the total new retirement registrations.
The change reflects the impact of the delay incentives in force from 2022 and the reconfiguration within the early retirement pension framework. As a result, the average age of access to retirement is 65.3 years, compared to 64.4 in 2019.
How long does it take for Social Security to resolve the pension application?
Regarding the time it takes to resolve the files, in the month of September it was 10.38 days in the case of retirement pensions and 11.19 days in the case of widow’s pensions. It must be taken into account that the maximum period for resolution in these procedures according to RD86/2003 of March 7 and RD 1192/2021 of August 3 is 90 days for retirement and widowhood.
Complement for reducing the gender gap
In September, 1,185,850 pensions were paid with the supplement for reducing the gender gap, of which 83.6% corresponded to women (991,234) with an average amount of this supplement of 75.1 euros per month.
Of the total supplemented pensions, more than 24.8% correspond to pensioners with one child, 48.1% of beneficiaries with two children and 18% receive it for three children, as well as 9.1% with four children.
Passive Class Pensions
The monthly pension payroll for the Passive Classes amounted to 1,698.2 million euros in the month of September, which represents an increase of 93 million euros, 5.8% annual variation.
The number of Passive Class pensions in force was 728,062, which is 14,591 more pensions than in September 2024, with growth close to 2.1% annually. The State’s Passive Classes Regime includes civil and military personnel of the AGE (General State Administration), Administration of Justice, General Courts and constitutional or state bodies as well as officials transferred to the Autonomous Communities.