With new figures showing how the country is rapidly ageing, statistic institute INE has updated its take on life expectancy in Portugal to 84.4 years, reports tabloid Correio da Manhã this morning.
The ‘upgrade’ follows the discovery that there are now “around 308,000” pensioners claiming social security benefit in Portugal who are over the age of 85.
It’s this extraordinary ‘leap’ in the number of senior seniors (the number represents double the number of pensioners over the age of 85 registered in 2000) – that is the reason why the national pensionable age keeps rising, says the paper – stressing that if it didn’t, the nation’s social security system would simply implode.
Next year, for example, the legal retirement age will increase by yet another month to 66 years and four months.
In percentage terms, the country’s over 85s represent 11% of the 2.6 million elderly who are already receiving pensions.
