On Tuesday 22 September 2026, global financial services firm Natixis published its 2026 Global Retirement Index (GRI), placing Luxembourg eighth, up one place from last year, with an unchanged overall score of 75%.
According to Natixis, retirement security is coming under intensifying pressure globally due to rapidly ageing populations, record public debt and persistent inflation. Created in collaboration with CoreData Research, the GRI provides a view of the factors that contribute to a secure retirement. In addition to financial measures, it assesses healthcare access and cost, climate, governance and overall population wellbeing. Its relative rankings are based on eighteen performance indicators across four sub-indices: Finances in Retirement, Material Wellbeing, Health and Quality of Life.
Strong performances in health, governance and retirement finances supported Luxembourg’s improvement, with the country retaining its top ranking in Health and posting gains in environmental indicators and governance. According to Natixis, these advances helped offset weaker results for inflation, tax pressure and unemployment.
Norway (83%) and Ireland (81%) continued to lead the GRI, holding first and second place, respectively, for the second consecutive year. The Netherlands recorded the largest rise in the top ten, climbing three places from sixth to third with an unchanged score of 79%, its highest GRI ranking to date. Switzerland dropped one place to fourth, while Denmark remained fifth despite a one-percentage-point decline.
Iceland fell five places from fourth to ninth, the largest decline in the top ten, driven largely by a fall in Material Wellbeing following higher unemployment. Finland recorded the steepest fall overall, dropping twelve places from 23rd in 2025 to 35th.
Czechia entered the top ten, climbing one place to tenth with a score of 75%. Poland entered the top 25 for the first time, rising nine places to nineteenth following a surge in Material Wellbeing.
Among larger developed countries, Germany remained the top performer at 75%, climbing one place to seventh in the overall GRI. The UK held second place among larger developed countries at 72%, but slipped one place to fifteenth in the overall rankings.
Natixis noted that many of today’s retirement pressures stem from systems built on twentieth-century assumptions. People are working differently, living longer and shouldering a greater share of the responsibility for funding retirement. In a recent survey of individual investors across 21 countries, 78% said it was increasingly their responsibility to fund their own retirement, up from 67% ten years earlier.
Individuals have relied on a three-pillar model of retirement income: government pensions, employer retirement plans and personal savings. The firm said this model is under growing strain. Ageing populations mean more people are drawing from public retirement systems while fewer workers are paying in. Longer life expectancies and private pension liabilities, alongside record public debt, are putting pressure on public pensions, while inflation leaves individuals with less money to save. The report added that policymakers around the world are working to update retirement systems for a new era of work and saving.
Commenting on this year’s results, Sébastien Sallée, Managing Director, Head of Sales – Belgium and Luxembourg at Natixis Investment Managers, said: “This year’s Index reinforces the urgency for outdated retirement systems to evolve and modernise, adapting to longer lives and changing work patterns. Policy reform can help move people from retirement saving to retirement investing, improving the odds of retirement security. Whilst modernising policy can improve the chance of retirement security, individuals must also take ownership of their retirement journey, saving now and consistently. Every year of delay increases the pressure on the years that remain.”
