About this data
- Defined benefit pensions pay an income based on salary and years of service (such as final salary or career average). Defined contribution pensions build up a pot from contributions and investment returns. Group personal and stakeholder pensions are also defined contribution, but are run by a pension provider rather than the employer.
- Most defined benefit pensions are now in the public sector; most private sector schemes have closed to new members.
- Automatic enrolment started in October 2012 for the largest employers, and reached all employers by 2018. Employers must enrol employees aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 a year into a workplace pension; employees can opt out.
- ONS changed its methods in 2021; the old and new figures for 2021 agree to within rounding.
This chart appears in Pensions.