Facts and figures

This page gives you some facts and figures about the NHS Pension Scheme Review.

• The NHS is the third largest employer in the world. In England and Wales over 10,000 employers employ around 1.3 million people. This is around one in every 40 people, or 2.5% of the population, working for the NHS.
• The NHS pensionable pay bill was around £31 billion in 2006, which accounts for almost half of NHS spending. £6.3 billion of pension contributions were paid: £4.3 billion by employers and £2.0 billion by employees.
• The NHS Pension Scheme is the largest single occupational pension scheme in Europe. It has 1.3 million active scheme members, over 300,000 deferred members and over 500,000 pensioners. In 2005/06 the NHS Pension Scheme paid out over £3.7 billion to its pensioners.
• The NHS Pension Scheme has never undergone significant change since its creation in 1948. It was modelled on a typical career path of the day: a married male working for 40 years with the same employer before retiring overnight on his 60th birthday.
• Around 77% of today's NHS workforce is female and almost 50% work part time.
• The average NHS pension is around £6,000 a year with average scheme membership of just 18 years.
• In 2006, the number of 55-64 year olds in the UK exceeded the number of 16-24 year olds for the first time, and 45-59 year olds were the largest group in the workforce.
• Nurses make up the largest share of the NHS workforce. Only one in ten nurses is aged under 30 compared to one in four in the early 1990s. By 2015, due to the age profile, annual losses from the nursing workforce are projected to reach almost 25,000 full-time posts. This is nearly double the 2000 figure.
• There are only around 600,000 school leavers each year. Every year the NHS recruits around 35,000 people to healthcare professional courses and this number is growing. The NHS also recruits at least this number to other NHS jobs.
• Life expectancy is increasing by one year every four years. In 1950 life expectancy for people in the UK was 69.2 years. It is now 77.2 years and rising.
• Average retirement age for all NHS staff has reduced over the decade by around half a year to about 62. For this group, the average time that pensions are expected to be in payment after people stop work has risen from about 21 years a decade ago to about 25 years currently. It is expected that the pensions of today's new entrants will be in payment for 27 years.