Netherlands residents work 6 years longer than average EU citizen

Dutch people have the longest careers of all residents of the European Union, according to new figures from Eurostat. The average Dutch person’s career spans 43.8 years, over six years longer than the EU average of 37.2 years, the European statistics agency reported.

Due to aging populations and longer healthy lifespans, people throughout the EU are working longer. In 2015, the average career was less than 35 years.

This increase is visible among men and women, though on average, women still have shorter careers in paid work than men. This is partly due to gender norms making women less likely to be in paid employment than men. In countries like Poland, Hungary, and Austria, the retirement age for women is also lower.

In the EU, a woman’s career is an average of 4.2 years shorter than a man’s. In the Netherlands, this gap is 3.9 years. Here, men work an average of 45.7 years, and women 41.8 years.

Only six countries have careers lasting more than 40 years. In addition to the Netherlands, these are Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, and Germany. Romania and Italy have the shortest working lives at less than 33 years.