Retirement and mortality in Norway - Is there a real connection?

The growth in life expectancy has lead to growing concerns about the need to raise the retirement age in order to stabilize the ratio between the economically active and the inactive, particularly in order to sustain the viability of social security systems (NOU, 2004; Palmer, 2003). Strong increases in the retirement age are needed to keep dependency ratios constant if the projected life expectancy growth will materialize (UN, 2007a; Eurostat, 2008). National Statistical Offices (including Statistics Norway), Eurostat and the United Nations assume that the life expectancy at birth will continue to increase by 1 to 2 years per decade (de Beer, 2006; UN, 2007; Eurostat, 2008; Alho et al., 2005). Statistics Norway (2009a, 2009b) assumes that the life expectancy at birth is going to continue to increase from 2008 to 2060, i.e. between 1.1 and 2.3 years per decade for men and between 0.8 and 2 years for women