Women have longer working lives than men in Latvia

In 7 EU countries, the average expected duration of working life is 40 years or more: the Netherlands (44.0 years), Sweden (43.4), Denmark (42.6), Estonia (41.5), Ireland (40.7), Germany (40.2) and Finland (40.1). By contrast, Romania (32.7 years), Italy (33.0) and Bulgaria (34.6) have the shortest working lives. Latvia sits in the middle with a working life of 38.1 years – very slightly more than the EU average but significantly shorter than in Estonia (41.5 years, as already mentioned) and slightly shorter than in Lithuania (38.6 years). In 2025, men in the EU were expected to work on average 39.5 years, with the longest durations in the Netherlands (45.9 years), Sweden and Denmark (both 44.5) and Ireland (43.4). The shortest expected working lives for men are in Bulgaria (35.9 years), Romania (36.0) and Croatia (36.3). For women, the average expected duration of working life in the EU is 35.4 years. The longest durations were in Sweden (42.3 years), the Netherlands (41.9) and Estonia (41.8). The shortest durations are in Italy (28.4 years), Romania (29.1) and Greece (31.8). Interestingly, the figures for men and women were very similar in Latvia, which bucked the general EU trend of men having longer working lives than women. Men had average working lives of 37.7 years in Latvia while women had slightly longer working lives of 38.6 years. Lithuania and Estonia were the only other countries where a similar trend was observable.