Gender pension gap in North Rhine-Westphalia
Gender pension gap in North Rhine-Westphalia stood at 38.8 percent in 2025, according to Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ) – Digital Gender Equality Atlas. It is one of the indicators in the Gender gaps by federal state table (Value · Annual), with a complete series running from 2020 to 2025. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Gender gaps by federal state table
| Indicator | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 36 | 36.9 | 37.7 | 38.3 | 41 | 40.8 | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 38.8 | 40.3 | 39.9 | 38.9 | 40.8 | 47 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 37.9 | 38.4 | 42 | 39.8 | 45.7 | 48.1 |
Understanding gender pension gap in North Rhine-Westphalia
Discrepancies in personal retirement income between female and male pensioners living in North Rhine-Westphalia are benchmarked here. The series calculates the percentage shortfall between average female and male old-age benefits, expressed as a proportion of the male average. The definition encompasses all personal retirement provisions, including statutory pension insurance, corporate pensions, and individual private pension products. Derived entitlements such as widows' pensions are left out, alongside general social welfare transfers and partner incomes. While other rows in this table detail regional parental employment disparities or the unadjusted gender pay gap, this row isolates the lifetime financial consequences of employment among North Rhine-Westphalia's resident pensioners.
An annual reporting timetable ensures the metric is unaffected by seasonal variation, so year-on-year comparisons provide an accurate assessment of long-term structural changes. Annual shifts reflect demographic cohort turnover, while updates to survey weighting frames or population projections can cause statistical realignments. A common interpretive pitfall is confusing this individual gap with overall pensioner poverty. Because the indicator evaluates personal gross entitlements rather than household disposable income or tax deductions, it does not reveal the total financial resources available within multi-person households.
Frequently asked questions
- Are widows' pensions included in North Rhine-Westphalia's gender pension gap?
- No, derived benefits like widows' pensions are excluded in order to measure only individual, directly earned pension rights.
- Does this indicator measure the pay gap of current employees in North Rhine-Westphalia?
- No, this metric evaluates retirement income from past employment, whereas the pay gap measures the current earnings of active workers.
- How are company pensions treated in this indicator?
- Occupational and company pensions are included alongside statutory and private pension plans as part of individual retirement provision.