#EMPLOYMENT & SOCIETY
At the end of 2024, women's own-right pensions in France were 36% lower than men's. Add survivor pensions and the gap falls to 25%. The mechanism that erases a third of it is the one that opens when a spouse dies.
Published on September 8, 2026 · to be rechecked on October 15, 2026
Each year the Drees, the French health and social statistics office, measures average pensions from its annual survey of pension funds and from ANCETRE, a model covering all schemes at once. At the end of 2024, 17.3 million people received an own-right pension, averaging 1,705 euros gross a month for those living in France. The gap between women's and men's own-right pensions stands at 36%. It returns to 25% once survivor pensions are added. Beyond those 17.3 million, around 900,000 people receive a survivor pension only, and they are almost exclusively women.
How much lower are women's pensions than men's?
36% lower on own-right pensions at end-2024, and 25% once survivor pensions count. The headline gap depends entirely on what you agree to include in it.
In other words: the more flattering of the two figures does not measure a career, it measures widowhood.
Five caveats that belong with the number
- The 36% figure covers gross own-right pensions, before social levies and excluding the top-up paid to parents of three children.
- Survivor pensions only narrow the gap once a spouse has died. The roughly 900,000 people drawing a survivor pension alone are almost exclusively women.
- The 1,705 euros is an average gross own-right pension for recipients living in France — not a net amount received, and not a median.
- The gap describes a stock: it pools every living generation of retirees, whose female working lives are not remotely comparable from one cohort to the next. It does not describe today's careers.
- The figure compares individual pensions, not the resources of the households in which those pensions are received. It says nothing about living standards.
Why it still matters: a pension gap means nothing without the list of what has been allowed into it.
For you
- When you are quoted a gender pension gap, are survivor pensions counted inside it?
- Does a mechanism that only triggers on a spouse's death correct an inequality, or move its date?
Source: Drees, annual survey of French pension funds (EACR) and all-scheme ANCETRE model, 2024 data released on 26 May 2026 — 17.3 million own-right pensioners at end-2024, average gross own-right pension of 1,705 euros for residents of France, gender gap of 36% on own-right pensions and 25% including survivor pensions.
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