Comparability

Comparability - geographical

Under the Nordic Social-Statistical Committee (NOSOSCO) statistics on comparison across the Nordic countries including statistics on old age and disability pensioners is published in the publication Social Protection in the Nordic Countries

Comparability over time

The statistics are affected by changes in legislation and administrative restructuring.

For 2021 data is published fro all months in stead of only January. From 2021 senior pension has been granted ist's own category and is no longer part of disability pensions. This lowers the number of disability pensioners by about 8.000 persons.

From 2004 to 2007 the retirement age was lowered from 67 to 65 years whereas the retirement age from 2019 to 2022 will be increased from 65 to 67 years. The retirement age affects the number of recipients of old age pension and disability pension.

From 2013 the disability pension was reformed implying that disability pension is not to be awarded to people aged less than 40 years. They are assigned to at least one interdisciplinary rehabilitation programme except in cases where it is obvious that the work ability cannot be improved. People aged above 40 years are to follow one interdisciplinary rehabilitation programme before disability pension can be awarded. A senior disability pension was introduced 2014 for workers with physically demanding jobs and with less than 5 years to their retirement age. Both reforms affect the number of disability pensioners and the age distribution.

In 2003 a new disability pension scheme was introduced implying that the number of disability pensioners on the old scheme gradually diminishes with time.

In 1995 the figures include pensioners living abroad as a consequence of an administrative restructuring; thus, the figures are not comparable to previous years.

In 1994 the pensions become taxable and the figures are not comparable to previous years.

In 1984 the legislation was changed and consequently the figures are not comparable to previous years.

Coherence - cross domain

The number of pensioners can also be found in the statistic on Persons receiving public benefits and the statistic on Income. Statbank table AUK02: Persons receiving public benefits (full participants) by type, service type, age and gender, determine the number of persons with disability pension and with light duties. These two groups correspond to the number of people on disability pension (excluding persons receiving temporary supplement). The statistics for public benefits is published quarterly and covers the number of recipients during an entire quarter. The number of pensioners in the public benefits Statistics is thus slightly larger than the number of disability pensioners in this statistic that only cover January.

Statank tables INDKP104 (personal income statistics) and AINDK1 (A-income statistics) have the number of pensioners and disability pensioners. These two statistics include persons who have been in Denmark throughout the entire year. Thus for instance pensioners who died during the year is not included in these statistics. Thus the number of pensioners and total amounts paid out are therefore slightly smaller than in the pension statistics. Additionally, there may be minor monetary deviations due to, among other things, adjustments made after collection of data.

Coherence - internal

In the pension statistics, all pensioners are counted regardless of whether they live in Denmark or live abroad. This is different in the statistics on public welfare and income, where only the pensioners residing in Denmark are the target group for the statistics.

The pension statistics of income statistics are based on data from Tax. This statistic is based on a later data extraction. Subsequent adjustments made in the intervening period may give rise to minor differences in amounts.