Age Pension recipients and Australian residents aged 65 and over, since 2013Age Pension recipients and Australian residents aged 67 and over, since 2013

Reading this chart

• Each point is a quarter. The lines join the quarterly values; nothing between quarters is estimated or smoothed.
• Age Pension recipients: the Department of Social Services' national count of Age Pension recipients at or near the end of the quarter, as published in its quarterly demographics data on data.gov.au, read from the file for each quarter (the department counts people current or suspended on its payment system, and from the December 2022 quarter those on a zero rate of payment). It covers recipients paid by Services Australia: the department says some people have their Age Pension paid by the Department of Veterans' Affairs instead, and they are not in the count, nor are DVA's own payments such as the service pension. The count includes recipients whose address is overseas or not known. From the December 2022 quarter the department rounds the count to the nearest 5. The department says its extraction method for the Age Pension changed between the December 2020 and March 2021 quarters and asks for caution when comparing those two quarters.
• Population aged 65 and over and Population aged 67 and over: the Australian Bureau of Statistics' estimated resident population of Australia at that age and over at the end of the quarter, both sexes, summed from the ABS estimates by single year of age. The ABS revises these estimates as data on births, deaths and migration arrives, from preliminary to revised to final. A revised estimate replaces the earlier one here, which the series file keeps as a revision, and the shares are worked out again.
• The dashed lines mark the dates a value of the Age Pension age took effect: 65 years from 1 July 2013, 65 years and 6 months from 1 July 2017, 66 years from 1 July 2019, 66 years and 6 months from 1 July 2021 and 67 years from 1 July 2023. Set by subsections 23(5A) and 23(5D) of the Social Security Act 1991, which list pension age by date of birth. It is not indexed and changes only when the Act is amended.
• In the share view, each quarter's value is the count of recipients divided by the population estimate for the end of that quarter, as a percentage to one decimal place. The two are matched by quarter. The shares are worked out by Retirement Wealth from the two published series. They are not published by the Department of Social Services or the Australian Bureau of Statistics. How the shares are worked out.
• The Age Pension age rose from 65 to 67 between 1 July 2017 and 1 July 2023, so for the quarters in between the share of people at or above that age lies between the share of those aged 65 and over and the share of those aged 67 and over.
• The share runs to the March 2026 quarter, the latest quarter with both counts. National, state and territory population, June 2026, expected 17 December 2026, extends it to the June 2026 quarter.

Retired people

Among people aged 45 and over, 4.5 million had retired from the labour force and 156,000 people retired in 2024 (ABS Retirement and Retirement Intentions survey, 2024-25). The survey, released 31 October 2025, counts people who have retired, whatever their income. That is a different count from the Age Pension recipients on this chart.

Retirement survey: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2024-25 financial year) Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia, ABS Website, accessed 24 October 2026. CC BY 4.0.

Sources

1. Department of Social Services: Expanded DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - June 2026
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics: National, state and territory population, March 2026
3. Department of Social Services: Social Security Guide 3.4.1.10 Qualification for Age
4. Department of Social Services: Secure and Sustainable Pension Reform: Age Pension Age
5. Services Australia: Who can get Age Pension
6. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia, 2024-25 financial year

Age Pension recipients: Department of Social Services, Australian Government, DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - quarterly data, sourced on 24 October 2026, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU).

Population estimates: Australian Bureau of Statistics (March 2026) National, state and territory population, ABS Website, accessed 24 October 2026. CC BY 4.0.

Age Pension recipients: each quarter's file in the Department of Social Services' DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - quarterly data; the latest is Expanded DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - June 2026. Population aged 65 and over and Population aged 67 and over: the Australian Bureau of Statistics' National, state and territory population, March 2026, through the ABS Data API.

Download the data

• The counts by quarter as CSV and as JSON. Notes for the files, also in the CSV's metadata file:
  • Age Pension recipients and Australian residents aged 65 and over, since 2013. Retirement Wealth, https://retirementwealth.com.au/charts/age-pension-recipients/
  • Counts of people, as published. age_pension_recipients is the Department of Social Services' national total of Age Pension recipients at or near the end of the quarter, as at recipients_as_at: recipients paid by Services Australia (Age Pension recipients paid by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and DVA's own payments such as the service pension, are not in it). Each population column is the ABS estimated resident population of Australia at that age and over at the end of the quarter, summed from the ABS estimates by single year of age; the ABS revises these estimates, and the status column gives each one's revision status.
  • Age Pension recipients: Department of Social Services, Australian Government, DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - quarterly data, sourced on 24 October 2026, https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/dss-payment-demographic-data, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU).
  • Population estimates: Australian Bureau of Statistics (March 2026) National, state and territory population, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/mar-2026, ABS Website, accessed 24 October 2026. CC BY 4.0.
  • Retirement Wealth provides selected factual information about Australian retirement rules and rates. It does not provide personal or general financial product advice or recommend financial products. Summaries may not cover every condition or exception. Check the linked official sources and obtain advice appropriate to your circumstances before making financial decisions.
• The shares, both populations, as CSV and as JSON. Each row carries derived: true. Notes for the files, also in the CSV's metadata file:
  • Age Pension recipients as a share of Australian residents aged 65 and over and of those aged 67 and over, since 2013. Retirement Wealth, https://retirementwealth.com.au/charts/age-pension-recipients/
  • share is age_pension_recipients divided by population, as a percentage to one decimal place, half up. The count is as at the department's extraction date in the quarter and the population estimate is for the end of the quarter; they are matched by quarter. The shares are worked out by Retirement Wealth from the two published series. They are not published by the Department of Social Services or the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Method: https://retirementwealth.com.au/methods/share-of-population/
  • The share runs to the March 2026 quarter, the latest quarter with both counts. National, state and territory population, June 2026, expected 17 December 2026, extends it to the June 2026 quarter.
  • Age Pension recipients: Department of Social Services, Australian Government, DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - quarterly data, sourced on 24 October 2026, https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/dss-payment-demographic-data, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU).
  • Population estimates: Australian Bureau of Statistics (March 2026) National, state and territory population, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/mar-2026, ABS Website, accessed 24 October 2026. CC BY 4.0.
  • Retirement Wealth provides selected factual information about Australian retirement rules and rates. It does not provide personal or general financial product advice or recommend financial products. Summaries may not cover every condition or exception. Check the linked official sources and obtain advice appropriate to your circumstances before making financial decisions.
• Age Pension age as JSON (figure page)
• Age Pension recipients, Australia: the number of recipients at or near the end of each quarter, as at the department's extraction date, from the table of payment recipients by payment type and state and territory in the DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics quarterly data as JSON
• Estimated resident population of Australia aged 65 years and over, persons, at the end of each quarter, summed from the ABS estimates by single year of age as JSON
• Estimated resident population of Australia aged 67 years and over, persons, at the end of each quarter, summed from the ABS estimates by single year of age as JSON
• People aged 45 years and over who had retired from the labour force, Australia, persons, from the ABS Retirement and Retirement Intentions survey for each financial year as JSON
• People aged 45 years and over who retired from the labour force in the year, Australia, persons: the ABS Retirement and Retirement Intentions survey's estimate for the year of retirement in which each survey's financial year began as JSON

Cite this chart

Age Pension recipients and Australian residents aged 65 and over, since 2013. Official sources: Department of Social Services; Australian Bureau of Statistics; Services Australia (last checked 24 October 2026). Retirement Wealth, https://retirementwealth.com.au/charts/age-pension-recipients/