In 2023, the expected average duration of working life for 15-year-olds in the EU was 36.9 years, so Latvia's figure is almost identical to the average. However, the expected average duration of working life varied broadly among EU countries.
In 2023, some of the durations in the EU exceeded 40 years. The highest were recorded in the Netherlands (43.7 years), Sweden (43.1 years) and Denmark (41.3 years). By contrast, the lowest working life durations were recorded in Romania (32.2 years), Italy (32.9 years) and Croatia (34.0 years). Generaly speaking, northern European countries tend to ave longer working lives than southern European countries.
(Source dataset: lfsi_dwl_a)
For men, the expected duration of working life was on average 39.0 years in the EU, with the longest durations recorded in the Netherlands (45.7 years), Sweden (44.1 years), Denmark and Ireland (both 42.8 years), and the shortest in Croatia (35.4), Bulgaria and Romania (both 35.6 years).
For women, the average duration of working life in the EU was 34.7 years, with the longest durations recorded in Sweden (41.9 years), followed by the Netherlands and Estonia (both 41.5 years), with the shortest in Italy (28.3 years), Romania (28.5 years) and Greece (30.6 years).
In Latvia there is barely any difference: men work an average 37.1 years, while women work 37.0 years.
Since 2013, the expected average duration of working life steadily increased in the EU. Then it declined for the first time in 2020 linked to the COVID-19 health crisis (from 34.7 years in 2013 to 35.9 years in 2019, then down to 35.6 years in 2020). In 2021, it came back to its pre-pandemic level.
In Latvia, the figure has risen from 34.6 years in 2014 to 37.0 in 2023 – an increase of nearly 2.5 years in a decade.
Sadly, the fact that Latvians have working lives of average duration does not translate into having retirement periods of average duration too – other Eurostat statistics show Latvian lifespans are among the shortest in Europe and that the number of healthy years they contain is also low when compared to EU peers.
