Developments in Dutch life expectancy mean the state pension age will not be increased in 2023, social affairs minister Wouter Koolmees confirmed on Friday.

Last November the government decided to increase the state pension age in 2022 to 67 years and three months, based on new life expectancy figures.

National statistics office CBS said on Friday that life expectancy in the Netherlands at age 65 will increase by 20.5 years in 2023. But that is slightly lower than the 2016 forecast of 20.7 years, which means the state pension age will not go up.

Advances in medical know-how and technology combined with better hygiene, food and living conditions have added years to average life expectancy in the Netherlands.

Increasingly larger numbers of the over-65s are living longer. In 1950 only half of those 65 and older reached the age of 80. In 2016, half of that age group will reach the age of 86. In 1950, 9% reached the age of 90: the current figure is 31%. The CBS has predicted that people in 2060 will not retire until halfway through their 72nd year.