The average Social Security pension in the system stands at €1,252.3 per month in April, 5% more than a year ago and 27% more than 5 years ago, in April 2019, thanks to successive revaluations since then.

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The average pension stands at 1,252.3 euros per month

This average corresponds to the amount of the different types of pension (retirement, permanent disability, widowhood, orphan’s pension and family allowance).

If we take as a reference the entry into force of Law 21/2021, which guarantees the purchasing power of pensions, the average pension in the system has increased by 21.5% (March 2021), thanks in large part to the revaluation in line with the CPI applied over the last 3 years.

‘The rise in prices as a result of the war in Ukraine has shown us that revaluing pensions according to the CPI by law was very wise. It is security for our pensioners and it is social justice”, says Minister Elma Saiz.

The monthly payroll for Social Security contributory benefits in April amounted to 12,710.8 million euros, for the ordinary monthly payment, a figure equivalent to 11.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

By type of pension
As usual, three-quarters of the contributory pension payroll corresponds to retirement pensions. Specifically, these pensions account for 73.2% of the payroll, 9,302.6 million euros. Widow’s and widower’s pensions accounted for 2,104.3 million euros, while permanent disability benefits amounted to 1,098.8 million euros, orphan’s pensions to 171 million euros and benefits for family members to 33.9 million euros.

Of the 10.1 million contributory pensions paid, 6.5 million are retirement pensions, 2.4 million are widows’ pensions, and the rest are permanent disability pensions (946,558), orphan’s pensions (341,436) and family allowances (45,924). The number of pensions is growing at a year-on-year rate of 1.2%.

In April, the number of pensioners was 9.2 million. Of these, 4.6 million are men and 4.5 million are women. The ratio of pensions per pensioner remains at 1.1 benefits per person.

The retirement pension is the main pension for 6.3 million people. Of these, 60% are men; in the case of the widow’s pension, of the 1.5 million people who receive it as their main benefit, 96% are women. On the other hand, there are 942,053 recipients of permanent disability, 323,569 of orphan’s pension, and 45,326 in favour of family members.

Average pension
As mentioned above, the average pension in the system stands at 1,252.3 euros per month, 5% more than a year ago.

The average retirement pension, meanwhile, is 1,439.1 euros. By schemes, the average retirement pension from the General Scheme is 1,598.6 euros per month, while the lowest is in the Self-Employed Scheme, with 961.2 euros. In the Coal Mining sector, the average monthly retirement pension is 2,798.7 euros, and 1,593.3 euros in the Sea Scheme. The average amount of new pension registrations in the system amounted to 1,490.5 euros per month in March 2024 (latest data).

In April, the average widow’s or widower’s pension reached 895 euros per month.

Of the new registrations in the first months of the year (82,562), 65.8% were at ordinary age (54,368), while 10.7% corresponded to the delayed retirement mode, compared with 4.8% in 2019.

The number of early retirements, on the other hand, fell considerably. In April, 34.1% of new registrations were early retirements, compared with 45.1% a year ago, a decrease of 11 points in 12 months.

The average time taken to resolve cases in March (latest available data) was 9.38 days in the case of retirement pensions and 9.53 days in the case of widow’s and widower’s pensions. It should be borne in mind that the maximum resolution period for these procedures, according to RD 286/2003 of 7 March and RD 1192/2021 of 3 August, is 90 days for both retirement and widowhood benefits.

With gender gap supplement
In April, 729,048 pensions received the supplement to reduce the gender gap, 90% of the recipients of which were women (655,508). The average monthly amount of this pension supplement is 71 euros. Of the 729,048 supplemented pensions, 23.8% correspond to pensioners with a child (173,547), who previously did not have access to the maternity supplement. Forty-seven per cent of beneficiaries have two children (342,937), 19% have three (138,395), and 10.2% have four children (74,169).

This supplement, in force since February 2021, consists of a fixed amount, after the revaluation applied in 2024, of 33.20 euros per month per child. It is applied for at the same time as the pension is claimed.

Pensioners
The monthly payroll for pensions for the Pensioners’ Pension Scheme amounted to 1,574.8 million euros in March, the latest figure available. This figure represents an increase of 98 million euros over the previous year, or 6.6% more.

The number of pensions in force was 709,983, 15,457 pensions more than in the same month of the previous year (2.2% annual variation).

The State Pension Scheme basically includes military personnel and civilian staff of the General State Administration, the Justice Administration, the Cortes Generales and other constitutional or state bodies, as well as civil servants transferred to the autonomous communities.