Spain — Pensions
Spain is the only country with pension reference data today (see Spain for the full list of activated models). This page lists the 2026 reference figures the tool loads as defaults — every one of them is editable per scenario in Pensions/Inputs and Pensions/Finance.
Contributors
Section titled “Contributors”~22.4 M people contribute to the system, split across two regimes:
| Regime | Share of contributors | Average gross annual earnings |
|---|---|---|
| General (RG) | ~85% | €32,057 (men) / €26,905 (women) |
| Self-employed (RETA) | ~15% | €24,600 (flat, both sexes) |
Contribution rates (both regimes): 28.30% to the pay-as-you-go pension core, plus 0.90% routed to the intergenerational reserve/MEI mechanism. For RETA, the tool uses a flat average contribution instead of the real 15-tier, income-based quota system — a documented simplification, not a measurement.
Beneficiaries
Section titled “Beneficiaries”~10.45 M contributory pensions are in force across six types, each with its own average monthly amount:
| Benefit type | Avg (€/mo) — men | Avg (€/mo) — women |
|---|---|---|
| Jubilación (retirement) | 1,785.01 | 1,255.57 |
| Viudedad (widowhood) | 639.90 | 960.07 |
| Incapacidad Permanente (disability) | 1,265.90 | 1,106.08 |
| Orfandad (orphanhood) | 526.49 | 520.48 |
| Favor familiar | 818.29 | 818.29 |
| PNC (non-contributory) | 643.04 | 643.04 |
Jubilación’s age profile assumes today’s statutory retirement age of 65 — editable per scenario in Pensions/Inputs’ “Effective retirement age” block, which can ramp it to a target over N years and shifts the Contributors/Jubilación age curves accordingly (see how to model pensions).
(Persons vs. pensions: ~9.45 M people hold ~10.45 M pensions between them — someone can draw more than one benefit at once, so the two counts are kept separate rather than merged.)
Clases Pasivas
Section titled “Clases Pasivas”A distinct, closed cohort of 710,000 retired state employees (€2,500/mo
average), modeled separately from the general contributory system because
it has no contributors of its own — it’s financed by transfer, not by a
payroll base still being replenished. New entrants are added for 15 years
(a documented modeling horizon), then the cohort only shrinks by mortality.
System scale (2026)
Section titled “System scale (2026)”Total public pension expenditure ≈ €229.5 billion, around 13% of GDP — a useful plausibility check against whatever your own Finance scenario produces on the Deficit/Surplus or Expenditure-by-category charts.
A note on data quality
Section titled “A note on data quality”These figures blend hard administrative totals (e.g. pensions in force,
statutory contribution rates) with interpolated or proxy estimates where
the official data doesn’t break down finely enough for the model (e.g.
splitting a 10-year age band into single years, or RETA’s income
distribution). Where a real measurement wasn’t available, the tool uses the
best available substitute and documents the choice — see
docs/data-sources/spain-pension-reference-data.md in the project
repository for the full source-by-source breakdown, including every
substitution and its rationale.