The Best And Worst Pension Funds Around The World, Ranked

As the population in the US begins to age considerably in the next few decades, the significance of a pension fund will only increase as more people begin to cash in their pensions. But how sustainable is the pension fund system in the US, and how does it compare to the pension plans of other countries?

Using data from the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index, personal finance site Visual Capitalist put together a graph that shows the best and worst pension plans by country measured by three criteria — adequacy, sustainability and integrity.

According to the graph, the Netherlands has the best pension system with an overall rating of 81 out of 100, followed closely by Denmark's 80.3. Thailand, on the other hand, has the lowest rating among the measured countries, scoring only 39.4. The US comes in at 17th place with a rating of 60.6.

As Visual Capitalist has pointed out, it's worth looking more closely at the sub-indexes that make up the Global Pension Index — especially the sustainability index, the ability for the pension system to sustain itself long-term. Denmark, for instance, has the most sustainable system among the 37 countries measured, while Italy has one of the least sustainable systems, perhaps because of its low participation rate and decreasing worker-to-retiree ratio.

[Read more at Visual Capitalist]