63, 64 or 65? The pension site has returned to center stage in recent days, as Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to act quickly, hoping the French will work longer. If the head of state remained vague on his project, his presidential program advocated raising the legal age from 62 to 65 years.
A measure unanimously rejected by the trade unions and particularly unpopular in public opinion, as revealed by the 2022 savings barometer* in France and in the regions carried out by Ifop for Altaprofits, an Internet wealth management consulting company. According to this survey, almost three quarters of the French (73%) place the ideal retirement age at 62 years or less. In detail, 11% defend an exit with less than 60 years, 37% at 60 years, 2% at 61 years and 23% at 62 years.
By contrast, 21% of respondents favor later exit, including 6% at 63, 4% at 64, 8% at 65, and 3% over 65.
Generational and geographical gap
The Ifop survey for Altaprofits clearly highlights the divergence of opinions between the different generations. Thus, while 8 out of 10 French people under 35 want to retire at 62 or younger (81%, including 43% at 60), just over half (53%) of those over 65 share this opinion.
On the other hand, 40% of the elderly say they are in favor of retirement from the age of 62, including 17% at 65, compared to only 11 and 4% among the youngest. In the end, the ideal average age for retirement is around 59.3 years for those under 35 years of age. Those aged 65 and over set it at 62.7 years.
Opinions also vary by place of residence. For example, the inhabitants of rural municipalities are more numerous in advocating retirement at 62 years or less (76%) than those of cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants (74%) and the Parisian agglomeration (65%). On the contrary, the latter are more in favor of retiring at age 65 (13%) than the inhabitants of other large cities (7%) or rural municipalities (6%).
incentive to save
The threat of an extension of the legal retirement age encourages 72% of French people to save more. More than a third of them (35%) say now that they want to join a Retirement Savings Plan compared to 28% in 2021. Those under 35 (59%) and students (64%) are even those who most think so, while “only” 27% consider it among those over 35 years of age.
*Survey conducted online from April 19 to 27, 2022 with a sample of 2,405 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over, and formed according to the quota method.
Source: BFM TV
