Research on aging, dementia and care in later life · free to read and cite

Research · for Anti-poverty & older people's organisations

Older People on Low Incomes: Poverty, Cold Homes and Health in Later Life

Published 2026-10-16

How likely an older person is to live on a low income depends heavily on where they live: from about one in twenty people aged 65 and over in some countries to four in ten in others. Where it happens, low income in later life goes with colder homes, care put off because of cost, and fewer years lived in good health.

Low income in later life rarely arrives suddenly. It usually reflects a working life on low pay, years out of paid work to raise children or care for others, ill health or disability, or a social protection system that pays too little or reaches too few people. It is also hard to get out of: few older people can add earnings when prices rise, and the costs that come with age, such as heating, health care and help at home, usually go up rather than down. This study brings together official statistics and research from several countries on how many older people live on low incomes, who they are, and what it means for daily life, health and length of life.

16.3%of people aged 65 and over in the European Union were at risk of poverty in 2025, the same rate as the population as a whole, but more than one in three in Latvia, Croatia, Lithuania and Estonia[1]
40%of people aged 66 and over in South Korea have incomes below half the national median, the highest old-age poverty rate in the OECD, though down from 48% in 2011[2]
15.4%of people aged 65 and over in the United States were in poverty in 2025 on the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which counts medical costs, against 9.8% on the official measure[3]

Old-age poverty rates range from about 1 in 20 older people to 4 in 10, depending on the country

Across the 27 countries of the European Union, 16.3% of people aged 65 and over had a household income below 60% of their country’s median in 2025, the same as the rate for the whole population[1]. That average hides a wide spread. The rate among older people was 41.7% in Latvia, 39.4% in Croatia, 39.2% in Lithuania and 33.7% in Estonia, well above the rates for each of those countries’ whole populations (22.0%, 19.5%, 22.6% and 19.5%). At the other end it was 8.4% in Czechia, 8.0% in Norway and 5.2% in Slovakia[1].

Outside Europe, the OECD’s 2025 comparison puts South Korea highest: 40% of people aged 66 and over have incomes below half the national median, and older people’s average disposable income there is 68% of the population average, against an OECD average of 87%[2]. In the United States, 15.4% of people aged 65 and over were in poverty in 2025 on the Supplemental Poverty Measure[3]. In Canada, 5.4% of people aged 65 and over were below the official poverty line (the Market Basket Measure) in 2024, against 11.0% of all Canadians[4]. In the UK, 14% of people over State Pension age were in relative low income after housing costs in the year to March 2025, on the Department for Work and Pensions’ household income statistics[5].

These figures use different poverty lines (60% or 50% of the median income, or the cost of a basket of essentials), so they cannot be ranked against each other. Each shows the same thing, though: whether later life means getting by or going without depends a great deal on where someone lives and on that country’s policies.

At-risk-of-poverty rate among people aged 65 and over, selected European countries, 2025Share of people aged 65 and over with equivalised disposable income below 60% of the national median, 2025: Latvia 41.7%; Croatia 39.4%; Lithuania 39.2%; Estonia 33.7%; Germany 19.5%; Ireland 18.8%; Italy 17.2%; Spain 16.4%; EU-27 16.3%; Poland 14.7%; Denmark 12.0%; France 11.6%; Sweden 11.2%; Czechia 8.4%; Norway 8.0%; Slovakia 5.2%.0%10%20%30%40%50%Latvia41.7%Croatia39.4%Lithuania39.2%Estonia33.7%Germany19.5%Ireland18.8%Italy17.2%Spain16.4%EU-2716.3%Poland14.7%Denmark12.0%France11.6%Sweden11.2%Czechia8.4%Norway8.0%Slovakia5.2%
Relative poverty line: 60% of each country’s median equivalised disposable income, so the line differs between countries. EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), people in private households. Source: Eurostat, dataset ilc_li02.

Older women, the oldest and people living alone are the most likely to be poor

Within each country, the risk is not shared evenly. In the European Union in 2025, 18.3% of women aged 65 and over were at risk of poverty, against 13.6% of men; among people aged 75 and over the gap was wider, at 19.5% of women and 13.5% of men[1]. The oldest people also tend to have the lowest incomes. In South Korea, people aged 76 and over have an average disposable income of 57% of the population average, against 76% for people aged 66 to 75[2].

Living alone matters too, partly because one income has to cover the fixed costs of a whole home. In Canada in 2024, 11.1% of older people not living with family (“unattached seniors” in Statistics Canada’s terms) were below the poverty line, against 4.0% of people in senior families[4]. The links between living alone, loneliness and health are covered in our study of older people living alone, and the wider picture for women in our study of older women.

At-risk-of-poverty rate among older women and men, European Union, 2025EU-27, 2025, income below 60% of the national median. Aged 65 and over: women 18.3%, men 13.6%. Aged 75 and over: women 19.5%, men 13.5%.WomenMen0%5%10%15%20%25%Aged 65 and over18.3%13.6%Aged 75 and over19.5%13.5%
EU-SILC, people in private households; poverty measured on household income, so it assumes income is shared within a household. Source: Eurostat, dataset ilc_li02.

Most older people worldwide receive some old-age income, but more than 165 million receive none

Public income support is central to keeping older people out of poverty. The International Labour Organization’s latest world report estimates that 79.6% of people above retirement age worldwide receive some form of old-age pension, but that more than 165 million people above statutory retirement age receive none[6]. Coverage is lower for women: such payments provide at least a basic level of income security for 82.6% of older men and 77.2% of older women worldwide.

Receiving something is not the same as having enough. In 38 countries, the ILO found, the minimum level of tax-financed (non-contributory) old-age payments is well below the national poverty line. As a result, the ILO says, older people relying on these payments for their income are still poor. Worldwide, close to 31% of people above retirement age rely on this kind of payment, including 34.2% of older women and 26.9% of older men, so the level at which it is set matters a great deal[6]. Public income matters in richer countries too: in the United States, Social Security was the largest single programme keeping people out of poverty in 2025, and more than 70% of the people it lifted above the poverty line were aged 65 and over[3].

Cold homes and food insecurity are more common for older people on low incomes

Low income shows up in the basics. In the European Union in 2025, 18.0% of people aged 65 and over living alone on an income below the poverty line said they could not keep their home adequately warm, against 8.9% of those living alone above it, and 8.8% of the population as a whole[7]. A cold home matters more in later life, when many people spend more of the day at home.

Food insecurity, meaning not being able to afford enough or good enough food, is also patterned by income and household. In Canada in 2024, 13.0% of unattached older people lived in a food-insecure household, against 9.9% of people in senior families[4]. The UK figures are a reminder that the pattern is not the same everywhere: 3% of people over State Pension age lived in a food-insecure household in the year to March 2025, and among those in low income the figure was 4% before housing costs and 6% after housing costs. Older people on low incomes in the UK are much less likely to live in a food-insecure household than working-age adults and children on low incomes, the Department for Work and Pensions reports[5]. The same statistics put 12% of people over State Pension age, about 1.5 million, in material deprivation on the department’s measure.

Food insecurity is linked with health. In a US study of 5,547 middle-aged and older adults in the Health and Retirement Study followed for 7.9 years, those with low food security had 1.58 times the hazard (rate) of developing depression of those with high food security, and those with very low food security 1.94 times[8]. The authors estimated that 9% of new cases were attributable to food insecurity: a modelled estimate from an observational study, not proof of cause in any individual.

Health costs push more older people below the line, and the poorest go without care they need

The cost of health care weighs heavily on low incomes in later life, and how poverty is measured decides whether that shows. In the United States in 2025, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which subtracts out-of-pocket medical expenses from people’s resources, put 15.4% of people aged 65 and over in poverty, against 9.8% on the official measure. The gap of 5.6 percentage points was the largest of any age group (for 18- to 64-year-olds the figures were 12.3% and 9.2%), and the Census Bureau attributes it mainly to the treatment of medical expenses[3].

Even in European countries with public health systems, cost still stops some older people getting care, and it falls hardest on the poorest. In the EU in 2025, 2.3% of people aged 65 and over in the poorest fifth of the income distribution reported going without a medical examination or treatment they needed because it was too expensive, against 0.6% in the richest fifth[9]. For dental care, the figures were 4.5% and 0.8%, with a step at every income level in between[10]. These are self-reported and the overall shares are small, but the pattern is consistent: the less money an older person has, the more likely cost is to come between them and care.

People aged 65 and over who went without a dental check-up or treatment they needed because it was too expensive, by income fifth, European Union, 2025EU-27, 2025, people aged 65 and over reporting an unmet need for dental examination or treatment in the past 12 months mainly because it was too expensive: poorest fifth 4.5%; second 3.3%; third 2.4%; fourth 1.8%; richest fifth 0.8%.0%1%2%3%4%5%4.5%Poorest fifth3.3%Second2.4%Third1.8%Fourth0.8%Richest fifth
Self-reported, EU-SILC, people in private households; income fifths (quintiles) of equivalised disposable income. Source: Eurostat, dataset hlth_silc_09.

Older people on low incomes live shorter lives, and more of those years in poor health

The gap in length of life between rich and poor is large and well documented. Linking 1.4 billion US tax records with death records, Chetty and colleagues found that life expectancy at age 40 for the richest 1% was 14.6 years longer than for the poorest 1% among men, and 10.1 years longer among women. Between 2001 and 2014, life expectancy rose by 2.34 years for men and 2.91 years for women in the top 5% of incomes, but by only 0.32 and 0.04 years in the bottom 5%[11]. In England in 2022 to 2024, life expectancy at birth was 73.2 years for men and 78.3 years for women in the most deprived areas, against 83.6 and 86.4 years in the least deprived. Healthy life expectancy was 49.8 years for men and 48.2 years for women in the most deprived areas, against 69.2 and 68.5 years in the least deprived[12]. These are area-level figures, not individual incomes.

The gap carries into later life. Using harmonised data on people aged 50 and over in the US Health and Retirement Study and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Zaninotto and colleagues found that people in the poorest wealth group could expect to live seven to nine fewer years without disability than those in the richest, a gap of similar size in both countries[13]. In England, following 15,003 people for 18 years, the wealthiest fifth at age 50 could expect 11.1 more years free of frailty than the poorest fifth among women, and 9.8 more years among men, and lived less than half as many years with frailty[14]. WHO notes that much of the diversity seen in older age arises from people’s physical and social environments, and from characteristics such as their sex, ethnicity or socioeconomic status[15]. These studies show association; low income, poorer health and earlier disadvantage across the life course are bound up together.

What the evidence asks of us

The figures point to gaps in income security, services and measurement, not to failings of the older people living with low incomes. They suggest five priorities for governments, funders and the services that work with older people.

  • Close the coverage gap. More than 165 million people above retirement age worldwide receive no old-age pension at all, and coverage is lower for women[6]. The ILO’s Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), emphasises the universality of protection[6].
  • Set minimum payments at a level people can live on. In 38 countries the minimum tax-financed old-age payment sits well below the national poverty line, so people who rely on it remain poor[6]. Where the oldest and those living alone are poorest, as in the EU, Korea and Canada[1][2][4], how payments keep up with living costs over a long retirement matters alongside their starting level.
  • Measure what older people actually have to spend. The US gap between the official and supplemental measures shows that leaving out medical costs can hide a large share of old-age poverty[3]. Statistics that count health, care and housing costs give a truer picture.
  • Take cost out of the way of care. The poorest older people in the EU are several times as likely as the richest to go without medical or dental care because of cost[9][10]. The WHO’s Decade of Healthy Ageing calls for person-centred integrated care and primary health services responsive to older people, and access to quality long-term care for those who need it[15].
  • Aim at the gap, not only the average. A 2026 modelling study for England, where the gap in disability-free life expectancy between affluent and deprived areas is over 15 years, found that cutting age-related disability risk alone could add 6.3 to 8.7 years of disability-free life but would widen the gap between the most and least deprived; measures aimed only at the most deprived fifth added up to 2.8 years for women and 2.3 years for men there[16]. Healthy ageing strategies need to do both.

Warm homes are part of the same picture: the gap in keeping warm between older people below and above the poverty line[7] is a matter for income, energy and housing policy together. The needs of people in their late eighties and beyond are covered in our study of the oldest old.

Language: this piece says "older people" rather than "the elderly", and describes "older people on low incomes" or "older people living in poverty", as most anti-poverty and older people’s organisations prefer. Where an official source uses a statistical category such as “pensioners” or “unattached seniors”, we describe it in plain words and give the source’s term where it helps.

Why we're publishing this

Old-age poverty is often treated as a solved problem in richer countries. The data say otherwise: in many countries a large minority of older people live below the poverty line, and low income in later life goes with colder homes, care gone without, and shorter, less healthy lives. We have brought the evidence together so that anti-poverty organisations, older people’s groups and campaigners can cite it in making the case for fair incomes and fair access to services in later life. The case is theirs.

How to read this data

Most poverty figures here are relative: they count people whose household income is below a fixed share (60% or 50%) of the median in their own country, so a poverty line in Latvia is not the same amount of money as one in Norway. Canada’s Market Basket Measure and the US Supplemental Poverty Measure instead compare resources with the cost of a basic standard of living. The measures differ, so figures from different countries should not be ranked against each other. The European, US, Canadian and UK figures come from large household surveys of people living in private homes, so they leave out people in care homes and other institutions; Eurostat and Census figures are for 2025, Canadian for 2024 and UK for the year to March 2025. The UK change in relative low income for people over State Pension age was not statistically significant[5]. Cold-home, food-insecurity and unmet-need figures are self-reported. The life-expectancy studies are observational: they show that lower income and wealth go with shorter and less healthy lives, not that income alone causes this, and England’s figures are by area deprivation rather than individual income. Evidence from low- and middle-income countries on poverty and health in later life is much thinner than for high-income countries; the ILO coverage figures are the main global source used here.

Use this data

Free to cite with attribution to Understanding Aging. Anti-poverty organisations, older people’s groups, campaigners and journalists are welcome to reuse these figures and charts. For the underlying figures as a spreadsheet, get in touch.

Suggested citation: Understanding Aging (2026). Older People on Low Incomes: Poverty, Cold Homes and Health in Later Life. https://understandingaging.org/research/older-people-low-income

Important: This article summarises published research and statistics for general information. It is not medical, care or financial advice and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or predict anything about an individual. If you have concerns about your own or someone else's health, please speak to a GP or another qualified health professional.

Sources

  1. Eurostat. At-risk-of-poverty rate by poverty threshold, age and sex – EU-SILC (dataset ilc_li02), 2025 data. Eurostat, 2026. ec.europa.eu/eurostat/…/ilc_li02
  2. OECD. Pensions at a Glance 2025: Korea (country note). OECD Publishing, 2025. oecd.org/…/korea-republic-of_7399de46/5cd52913-en.pdf
  3. US Census Bureau. Poverty in the United States: 2025 (P60-290). US Census Bureau, 2026. www2.census.gov/library/publications/2026/demo/p60-290.pdf
  4. Statistics Canada. Canadian Income Survey, 2024. The Daily, 29 April 2026. www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/260429/dq260429a-eng.htm
  5. Department for Work and Pensions. Households Below Average Income: an analysis of the UK income distribution, FYE 1995 to FYE 2025. GOV.UK, 26 March 2026. gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-…-fye-2025
  6. International Labour Organization. World Social Protection Report 2024–26: Universal social protection for climate action and a just transition, chapter 4. ILO, 2024. webapps.ilo.org/…/world_social_protection_report_2024-26/Chapter 04
  7. Eurostat. Inability to keep home adequately warm – EU-SILC (dataset ilc_mdes01), 2025 data. Eurostat, 2026. ec.europa.eu/eurostat/…/ilc_mdes01
  8. Zhu J, Zhang Y, Xu J, et al. Food insecurity, epigenetic age acceleration, and depression in middle-aged and older adults: a longitudinal cohort study. Frontiers in Nutrition, 2026. europepmc.org/article/MED/42358299
  9. Eurostat. Self-reported unmet needs for medical examination by sex, age, main reason declared and income quintile (dataset hlth_silc_08), 2025 data. Eurostat, 2026. ec.europa.eu/eurostat/…/hlth_silc_08
  10. Eurostat. Self-reported unmet needs for dental examination by sex, age, main reason declared and income quintile (dataset hlth_silc_09), 2025 data. Eurostat, 2026. ec.europa.eu/eurostat/…/hlth_silc_09
  11. Chetty R, Stepner M, Abraham S, et al. The association between income and life expectancy in the United States, 2001–2014. JAMA, 2016. europepmc.org/article/MED/27063997
  12. Office for National Statistics. Healthy life expectancy by national area deprivation, England and Wales: between 2013 to 2015 and 2022 to 2024. ONS, 15 April 2026. ons.gov.uk/…/healthylifeexpectancybynationalareadeprivationenglandandwales/between2013to2015and2022to2024
  13. Zaninotto P, Batty GD, Stenholm S, et al. Socioeconomic inequalities in disability-free life expectancy in older people from England and the United States: a cross-national population-based study. Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 2020. europepmc.org/article/MED/31940032
  14. Sinclair DR, Maharani A, Kingston A, O’Neill TW, Matthews FE. Frailty-free life expectancy and its association with socio-economic characteristics: an analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing cohort study. BMC Medicine, 2025. europepmc.org/article/MED/40346600
  15. World Health Organization. Ageing and health (fact sheet). WHO. who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health
  16. Sinclair DR, Davies LE, Hanratty B, Todd C, Matthews FE, Kingston A. Disability free life expectancy: a simulation study of scenarios to extend healthy years and reduce inequalities. BMC Medicine, 2026. europepmc.org/article/MED/42168976