Pension in Spain: retirement age, amounts and your foreign pension

Spain does not have a single retirement age. It has two, and which one applies to you depends not on your year of birth but on how many years you have paid contributions. In 2026 it is either 65 or 66 years and 10 months, and the difference between them comes down to three months of missing contributions.

Below we go through both figures, the actual pension amounts from the 2026 decree and, separately, how years worked abroad and a foreign pension are treated if you live in Spain. The last part is more complicated than it seems: everything depends on whether Spain has a social security agreement with the other country.

What is the retirement age in Spain for men and women

The ordinary retirement age (edad ordinaria de jubilación) in 2026 works as a fork:

Contribution record	Retirement age in 2026
38 years 3 months or more	65
Less than 38 years 3 months	66 years and 10 months

The scale is published by Seguridad Social (Spain’s social security system). The threshold rises every year and reaches its end point in 2027: 65 with at least 38 years 6 months of contributions and 67 with less. After that it stops moving — this is the final stage of a reform phased in since 2013.

The retirement age in Spain is the same for women and men: sex does not affect it, and the fork is determined solely by your contribution record.

The average actual retirement age in Spain is 65.4, whereas in 2019 it was 64.4. So most people fall into the lower-age branch and do not wait until 66 years and 10 months, but people have started retiring later.

How long you need to work to get a pension at all

The minimum for entitlement to a contributory pension is 15 years of contributions (5,475 days). At least two of those years must fall within the last 15 years before you apply. This second condition excludes people who contributed long ago and then stopped: they have enough years but no entitlement. Your periods of work in Spain are shown in your vida laboral.

With exactly 15 years of contributions the pension will be at the minimum level — the percentage of the calculation base grows with the length of your contribution record.

Early retirement

Voluntary early retirement is possible when you are no more than two years from the ordinary age, and requires at least 35 years of contributions. For each quarter short, the pension is cut by a reduction coefficient, and this reduction stays for life, not just until you reach the ordinary age.

Deferred retirement: extra pay for working longer

The opposite case is continuing to work after reaching retirement age. The state encourages this, and since 28 August 2026 the choice has widened: Royal Decree 416/2026 added a mixed option to the existing ones.

The options are:

• a 4% supplement to the pension for each full extra year of work — it stays with you for life;
• a lump sum on retirement, the amount depending on your contribution record and base;
• a mixed option, introduced in 2026: some of the years are paid as a lump sum and the rest give the same 4% a year. If you work nine or more extra years, five years are paid as a lump sum and the percentage is applied to the remainder.

There is also flexible retirement (jubilación flexible) — when a pension has already been granted but the person returns to part-time work. If you go back to work no earlier than six months after the pension is granted, 25% is added to the part compatible with work for a 55–80% working schedule and 15% for a 33–54% schedule.

How much is the pension in Spain in 2026

In 2026 all pensions were increased by 2.7%. All the amounts below come from Royal Decree 39/2026, not from second-hand summaries.

Average pension

According to data for August 2026:

• €1,574.9 a month — the average retirement pension;
• €1,373.44 a month — the average across the whole system, including widows’, disability and orphans’ pensions.

The difference between these two numbers explains most of the confusion online: the first is calculated on retirement pensions only, the second on all pensions together, which include, for example, widows’ pensions averaging €976 a month. In total Spain pays 10,535,869 pensions to more than 9.5 million people, with a monthly payroll of €14,470.4 million. How these amounts compare with prices is shown in our analysis of the standard of living in Spain.

Minimum pension

The minimum depends not on your contribution record but on your family situation. The amounts for 2026:

Situation of a pensioner aged 65 or over	Per year	Per month
Dependent spouse	€17,592.40	€1,256.60
Lives alone	€13,106.80	€936.20
Has a spouse who is not dependent	€12,441.80	€888.70

Not everyone receives the top-up to the minimum: the pensioner’s other income must not exceed €9,442.00 a year, or €11,013.00 a year for the couple if there is a dependent spouse.

Maximum pension

The upper limit for 2026 is €3,359.60 a month, or €47,034.40 a year. No state pension above this amount is granted, however high your earnings and contribution record.

If you have no contribution record at all

A person without the required contributions can receive a non-contributory pension — €8,803.20 a year, that is €628.80 a month. It requires being 65, having a low income and ten years of legal residence in Spain between the age of 16 and the date of application, two of them immediately before applying (article 369 of the General Social Security Act; the amount is in article 21 of Royal Decree 39/2026). What this means for parents who move to Spain is explained below.

Why the “monthly” figure differs everywhere: 14 payments instead of 12

This is where people most often go wrong, and the mistake costs hundreds of euros in calculations.

Spanish pensions are paid in fourteen instalments a year: twelve ordinary ones plus two extra ones, in June and November. So the annual amount in the official table cannot be divided by twelve — you would get an inflated “monthly” pension that nobody actually receives.

Take the minimum pension with a dependent spouse as an example:

• 17,592.40 ÷ 14 = €1,256.60 — this is what arrives in an ordinary month. This is correct;
• 17,592.40 ÷ 12 = €1,466.03 — you cannot calculate it this way, yet this is exactly the number circulating on many websites.

When checking any figure for the size of a Spanish pension, first look at what was divided: if it was divided by 12, the amount is overstated by about 17%.

How your own pension is calculated

Average and minimum figures have nothing to do with a specific person. An individual pension is the product of two values: the calculation base and a percentage that depends on your contribution record.

The calculation base: 300 months divided by 350

In 2026 the contribution bases for the last 300 months are taken, that is, for the 25 years before retirement, and their sum is divided by 350.

The divisor 350 looks odd only until you remember the fourteen payments: 25 years × 14 = 350. The formula directly gives the amount of one payment, not average monthly earnings.

Old bases do not lose value: they are revalued in line with the consumer price index. The exception is the last 24 months, which are taken at face value.

This also answers the popular myth about “twenty-nine years”. The 2023 reform does introduce a different method — taking 29 years and discarding the two worst. But it is phased in gradually from 2041 to 2044, not now. Everyone retiring in the coming years is assessed on 25 years.

Percentage of the base: from 50 to 100

Even a full base does not mean a full pension. The percentage depends on your contribution record:

• 15 years of contributions — 50% of the base. This is the lowest step that gives entitlement to a pension;
• after that, 0.21% is added for each additional month — this applies to the first 49 months;
• from the fiftieth month the increment falls to 0.19% a month;
• the ceiling is 100%.

Adding it up: 49 months at 0.21% give 10.29%, then another 39.71% is needed, which is another 209 months at 0.19%. In total that is 258 extra months — 21 years and 6 months.

So the full 100% of the base is reached with a contribution record of 36 years 6 months. Anything less means a proportionally smaller pension, even if you have already reached the age.

Autónomos and employees: a gap of €672

The difference between the schemes turns out to be bigger than the difference between professions. According to data for August 2026:

Scheme	Average pension
General scheme (employees)	€1,733.7 a month
RETA (autónomos, self-employed)	€1,062.1 a month

The gap is €671.6 a month, meaning an autónomo receives almost 40% less. The reason is not income but contribution bases: for decades autónomos paid contributions on the minimum base because it is cheaper today, and this carries straight into the pension through that same 300-month formula. For comparison, see our analysis of salaries in Spain.

For those who move and register as autónomo (self-employed) in Spain, the practical conclusion is this: the contribution base you choose in your first year is not only your current payment but also your future pension. Saving on contributions is deferred, not cancelled.

A foreign pension in Spain: social security agreements

This is where the most important part begins for people moving from outside the EU. Whether your years abroad count in Spain depends on a bilateral social security agreement between Spain and the country where you worked.

What a social security agreement gives you

What it gives you: periods of work in both countries are added together. If your Spanish record is short of fifteen years, your record in the other country is added to it, and you become entitled to a Spanish pension. Each country will pay its own share, in proportion to the time worked there. If the two parts together fall short of the Spanish minimum pension and the pensioner lives in Spain, Spain pays the difference under its own rules — more in the section on pensions for parents.

The same mechanism works the other way round and covers retirement, disability and survivors’ pensions.

If your contributions were paid in three countries

This is not unusual: part of your working life was outside the EU, part in another EU country and part in Spain. Here two different mechanisms apply, and they do not merge into one.

• periods within the EU are coordinated by common EU rules — they are visible to all member states;
• periods in a non-EU country are counted only where there is a separate bilateral agreement with that country.

The practical conclusion: Spain will count your years in a non-EU country if it has an agreement with that country. They will not automatically be recognised across the whole European Union. So the country through which you claim your pension is sometimes worth choosing rather than taking for granted.

In any case each country pays only for its own periods and under its own rules. There is no single pension “for everything”; you receive several payments from different systems.

Tax on a foreign pension in Spain

Once a pensioner becomes a Spanish tax resident, Spanish personal income tax (IRPF) is also due on a foreign pension. A pension from a public social security system is employment income (article 17.2.a of the IRPF Act), taxed on the general progressive scale together with other income.

• A credit only for tax actually paid. Tax can be offset in Spain (article 80 of the IRPF Act) only if it was in fact withheld from the payment in the paying country.
• Filing a return. A foreign fund does not withhold Spanish tax, so the filing threshold for such a pension is €15,876 a year rather than €22,000 (article 96.3.c of the IRPF Act). If there is other income as well, the obligation is checked on everything together; how to file the modelo 100 return is explained separately.

Which people who have moved can get a Spanish pension

The search “get a pension in Spain” usually means not “how to fill in the application” but “am I entitled to one at all”. There are three scenarios, and they are very different.

You have worked in Spain for 15 years or more

The standard case: you are entitled, and the pension is calculated under the general rules — a base over 25 years and a percentage by contribution record. Citizenship plays no role; what matters is contributions and legal status.

Less than 15 years in Spain, but you have a record abroad

If Spain has a social security agreement with the country where you worked, periods there are added to Spanish ones, and if the total reaches fifteen years, you become entitled to a Spanish pension.

But Spain pays only for its own share — in proportion to the time worked there. If, say, seven of your fifteen years were in Spain, the Spanish pension will be about half of a full one. There is no fixed floor for the Spanish share: the €4,197.20 in Royal Decree 39/2026 is a guarantee only for pensions under the old SOVI insurance scheme (article 11). What protects you is something else — the top-up to the Spanish minimum if the pensioner lives in Spain. The foreign part is granted separately and paid by the other country.

You have never worked in Spain

Then there will be no contributory pension — there is nothing to base it on. What remains is the non-contributory pension, but it has a separate condition: ten years of legal residence in Spain, two of them immediately before applying. In other words, you cannot move to Spain in retirement and start receiving it straight away; it is a benefit for people who have lived in the country for a long time. Years of work and residence abroad do not count towards it.

A claim for a contributory pension is made to the National Social Security Institute (INSS), including through its online office: under an agreement, it can be filed in the country where you live and counts as filed in the other country too. The non-contributory pension is claimed not from the INSS but from IMSERSO or the social services of the autonomous community. If the file includes foreign contributions, processing takes longer: the Spanish side has to formally request confirmation of the periods from the other country.

Tax on a Spanish pension

A Spanish pension is taxable income, treated as employment income, and the tax is withheld at source. How personal income tax works as a whole is explained in our guide to taxes in Spain for individuals. The withholding rate depends on the size of the pension and family circumstances, and can be adjusted by providing your details.

Also keep the number of payers in mind: the threshold below which you do not have to file a tax return is noticeably higher for income from one payer than from two. Someone receiving both a Spanish and a foreign pension is in the second situation, and the obligation to file arises for them sooner than for a neighbour with a single pension.

A pension for parents who move to Spain

A typical situation: parents over 65 move to join you, they have a pension from their home country and not a single day of Spanish contributions. There are three Spanish benefits they can count on, and each has its own condition: Spanish contributions, residence in Spain, or both.

Contributory pension: no Spanish contributions, no pension

A social security agreement adds periods together, but only if there are Spanish periods to add to. If Spanish contributions total less than a year and do not give entitlement on their own, Spain as a rule does not apply aggregation. So to receive any Spanish contributory pension at all, a parent has to work in Spain — as an employee or as an autónomo (self-employed) — for at least a year.

Entitlement is then checked on the combined foreign and Spanish periods, but Spain pays only the share matching its own years. With two years of Spanish contributions out of 37 years in total, that is about 5% of the theoretical Spanish pension. The Spanish part is granted at the Spanish retirement age, the foreign part by the other country under its own rules.

Whether a parent may work depends on their residence permit: under family reunification in the general regime only after obtaining a work authorisation, and immediately if they hold a permit alongside a digital nomad or under the startup visa. The routes and conditions are set out in the section “How to bring your parents to Spain” of our article on family reunification.

Top-up to the Spanish minimum

This is the most underrated mechanism. If the Spanish share and the foreign pension together are below the Spanish minimum pension, Spain pays the difference for as long as the pensioner lives in Spain and stays within the income limit (article 59 of the General Social Security Act, article 18.3 of Royal Decree 39/2026).

• the benchmark is the minimum pension from the table above: €13,106.80 a year for someone living alone;
• income other than the pension — rent, interest, dividends, earnings — must not exceed €9,442.00 a year (article 9.2 of Royal Decree 39/2026);
• the top-up cannot exceed the non-contributory pension — €8,803.20 a year (article 9.5 of the decree);
• for the calculation the foreign pension is converted into euros at the 1 January exchange rate (article 18.5 of the decree).

The top-up only comes together with a Spanish treaty pension, which again means at least a year of Spanish contributions. For a well-off family the main risk is the income limit: if the parents let out their flat back home or hold deposits, €9,442 a year is reached quickly and there will be no top-up.

Non-contributory pension: ten years in Spain

If there are no Spanish contributions at all, what remains is the non-contributory pension (pensión no contributiva de jubilación). Under article 369 of the General Social Security Act it goes to people aged 65 or over who have lived legally in Spain for ten years between the age of 16 and the date of application, two of them consecutive and immediately before applying, and who lack sufficient income.

• The amount for 2026 is €8,803.20 a year (article 21 of Royal Decree 39/2026), that is €628.80 in each of 14 payments.
• A foreign pension counts as income. The full amount is paid if your own income does not exceed 35% of the pension — €3,081.12 a year; above that the pension is reduced by the excess, but not below 25% — €2,200.80 a year (article 364 of the act). If income is not below the pension itself, there is no entitlement (article 363.1).
• Retired couples. If both receive it, each gets €7,482.72 a year: 70% is added for the second person and the total is split between the two (article 364.1).
• Your income counts too. If the parents live with you as one household, the income of everyone living there is added up, and the limit when living with children is two and a half times the usual one (article 363.3). For two parents and an adult child that is €52,819.20 a year for all of them: with your income at €120,000 there will be no non-contributory pension.
• It is not paid abroad. Entitlement depends on living in Spain (article 369.2).

The claim is made not to the INSS but to the Institute for Older Persons and Social Services (IMSERSO) or to the social services of the autonomous community (article 373 of the act). The law requires legal residence without tying it to a particular type of permit, and the ten-year count starts with the first residence permit: a reason to bring your parents sooner rather than later.

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Is a pension enough for a residence permit

This is the most common practical question for people planning to spend their retirement in Spain. The suitable route is the residence permit without the right to work (no lucrativa): it is designed precisely for people living on passive income. Other options are collected in our overview of ways to get a Spanish residence permit.

The income threshold for it is €2,400 a month for the applicant, plus €600 — 100% of the IPREM — for each family member: for a couple that is €3,000.

This leads to a conclusion worth seeing in advance:

• The average Spanish pension is not enough. €1,574.9 against the required €2,400 — a shortfall;

That does not mean the route is closed. The threshold is assessed on the total of proven income and savings: rental income, dividends, interest on deposits and money in accounts are added to the pension. The question is how to put this together and present it so that the consulate accepts it — and this, rather than the amount itself, is where applicants are most often turned down.

For retirees this route is in effect the residence permit for retirees: a pension counts as passive income on a par with rent and dividends, and the route has no age limit.

Indexation: why the pension changes every January

Spanish contributory pensions are recalculated at the start of every year. The rule is in article 58 of the General Social Security Act: the pension goes up by the average year-on-year change in the consumer price index over the twelve months preceding December of the previous year. If that average turns out negative, pensions are not cut — they stay as they were. The maximum and the minimum pension are updated by the same percentage each year in the budget act.

A separate rule for people whose record is split between countries. When a pension is awarded under an international agreement and Spain pays only part of the theoretical amount, it is that part which is indexed: the increase is calculated on the full figure and then your share is taken from it. So the more Spanish contributions you have, the larger the annual rise — one more reason not to abandon Spanish contributions halfway.

Widow’s and children’s pensions

This is not the same benefit as the retirement pension, and it has its own rules (article 219 of the same act).

• The widow’s pension is for life. It goes to the surviving spouse if the deceased was covered by the system. If they were not registered on the day of death, the right remains where the contribution record is fifteen years or more.
• If death resulted from an ordinary illness that existed before the marriage, the timing also matters: the marriage must have been celebrated at least a year before the death, or the couple must have had children together.
• Children receive their own orphan’s benefit, calculated separately from the widow’s pension.

For a family with a Spanish contribution record this is part of estate planning: one spouse’s contributions work for the other, and the same years count as for the retirement pension.

Frequently asked questions

What is the retirement age in Spain for women and men?

It is the same: sex does not affect the retirement age, only the contribution record matters. In 2026 it is 65 with at least 38 years 3 months of contributions and 66 years 10 months with less; from 2027 it is 65 and 67.

From what age and how long do you need to work to get a pension in Spain?

You need at least 15 years of contributions, two of them within the last 15 years before applying. You can retire early no sooner than two years before the ordinary age and with at least 35 years of contributions, but the pension is then reduced for life.

What is the average pension in Spain?

According to data for August 2026, the average retirement pension is €1,574.9 a month, and the average across the whole system including widows’ and disability pensions is €1,373.44. The annual amount is divided into 14 payments, not 12.

What is the minimum pension in Spain in 2026?

For a pensioner aged 65 or over it is €936.20 a month if they live alone, €1,256.60 with a dependent spouse and €888.70 if they have a spouse who is not dependent. The top-up to the minimum is paid only if other income does not exceed the set limit.

Can retired parents who move to Spain receive a pension there?

Only if one of the conditions is met. A contributory pension under a social security agreement needs at least a year of Spanish contributions, and Spain pays a share only for its own years. The non-contributory pension — €8,803.20 a year in 2026 — is available from 65 after ten years of legal residence in Spain, two of them consecutive before applying, and with low income for the whole household.

Do work periods abroad count towards a Spanish pension?

For a contributory pension, yes, if Spain has a social security agreement with the country where you worked: periods there are added to Spanish ones if there is at least a year of Spanish contributions. For the non-contributory pension years of work and residence abroad do not count.

Do you have to pay tax in Spain on a foreign pension?

Yes, if you are a Spanish tax resident: the pension is taxed under IRPF on the general scale as employment income. A credit is possible only for tax actually withheld in the paying country. The filing threshold for a pension without Spanish withholding is €15,876 a year.

Is a pension enough to get a residence permit in Spain?

A pension alone is usually not enough: the residence permit without the right to work requires income of at least €2,400 a month for the applicant plus €600 for each family member. Rental income, dividends, interest and savings can be added to the pension.

Key points

• In 2026 people retire at 65 with at least 38 years 3 months of contributions and at 66 years 10 months with less; from 2027 the ages are 65 and 67;
• the minimum contribution record for entitlement to a pension is 15 years, two of them within the last 15;
• the average retirement pension is €1,574.9, the minimum is €888.70 to €1,256.60 a month and the maximum is €3,359.60;
• annual amounts are divided by 14, not 12;
• an individual pension is calculated from the bases for 25 years divided by 350 and multiplied by a percentage based on the contribution record: 50% for 15 years, 100% for 36 years 6 months;
• the average pension of autónomos is €672 a month lower than that of employees — a consequence of minimum contribution bases;
• working beyond retirement age earns extra: 4% a year, a lump sum or the mixed option introduced in August 2026;
• years worked outside the EU count only where Spain has a social security agreement with that country;
• periods abroad are added to Spanish ones if your own fall short of fifteen years and there is at least a year of Spanish contributions, but Spain pays only for its share; if both pensions together are below the Spanish minimum and the pensioner lives in Spain, the difference is topped up;
• parents without Spanish contributions are left with the non-contributory pension — €8,803.20 a year — after ten years of legal residence and with low income for the whole household, including the children they live with;
• a Spanish resident’s foreign pension is taxed under IRPF on the general scale;
• a pension alone, whether Spanish or foreign, is not enough for a no lucrativa residence permit.