“How much do I need for retirement?” A vague “more is better” doesn't help — you need a target number.
1. What you need. On the National Pension Service survey, the adequate cost is ₩1.976M a month for one person and ₩2.981M for a couple (the minimum figures are ₩1.392M and ₩2.166M). Respondents put the start of “old age” at 68.5 on average.
2. Where the gap is. The national pension does not come close — the average old-age pension sits in the ₩600,000s, so a couple both collecting reach only about ₩1M, leaving roughly ₩1.98M a month unfilled. And medical costs are not fully inside that living-cost figure.
3. What to do. Size the lump sum as monthly shortfall × 12 × expected years in retirement — a ₩1.5M gap over 25 years is about ₩450 million. Filling it with company and personal pensions and savings is what the “three tiers” means.
Use the figures below to see how far your national, company and personal pensions fall short, and what to do now.
Adequate retirement cost — the survey figures
These come from the National Pension Service's press release of 31 December 2025, “Results of the 10th supplementary survey of the 2024 Korean Retirement and Income Study.” It covered 5,138 households and 8,394 people aged 50 and over.
| Type | Adequate (monthly) | Minimum (monthly) |
|---|---|---|
| Single | ₩1.976M | ₩1.392M |
| Couple | ₩2.981M | ₩2.166M |
“Adequate” is comfortable living; “minimum” is basic subsistence. The same survey found respondents consider old age to begin at 68.5 on average.
This is where most people miscalculate. The couple's adequate figure of ₩2.981M is about 1.5 times the single figure of ₩1.976M, not double. The minimum works out at 2.166 ÷ 1.392 ≈ 1.56 times.
Read the other way: living alone costs far more per person than living as a couple. Housing and utilities don't halve when you split them. Budget “half of a couple's” and you will badly underestimate your shortfall.
It varies by region, health and housing, so treat these as a starting number. Owning your home mortgage-free lowers it considerably; renting with heavy medical costs raises it.
Count medical costs separately
The most commonly omitted item. Figures published in the National Health Insurance Service's magazine give a sense of scale.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Per person, per year (2023) | ₩5,306,000 |
| Of which, out of pocket | ₩1,252,000 |
| Change on the year | +₩77,000 (out of pocket +₩16,000) |
₩5.306m a year is about ₩440,000 a month, of which ₩104,000 comes out of your own pocket. Assume some of it sits inside the adequate figure above, and add more if your health warrants it.
We reopened this box on 21 September 2026. It had long carried the 2018 figure (₩4.387m a year, ₩366k a month) because the page said the statistics agency would not open. In fact Statistics Korea has been renamed the Ministry of Data and Statistics and moved to mods.go.kr — it opens. In five years the monthly figure rose by ₩76,000. The old line that people 65+ account for 39.9% of all health-insurance spending is a 2018 number from the insurer's magazine, so it is left out here.
Where the money actually goes — a month in a household headed by someone 60+
We opened the Household Income and Expenditure tables on 21 September 2026. Ministry of Data and Statistics, “monthly household income and expenditure by age of household head (nationwide, one-person households and up)”, Q4 2024. These households average 1.91 people, with the head averaging 69.7 years.
| Item | Monthly average | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Total consumption | ₩2,254,233 | 100% |
| Food and non-alcoholic drinks | ₩456,350 | 20.2% |
| Housing, water and fuel | ₩304,004 | 13.5% |
| Health | ₩303,633 | 13.5% |
| Eating out and lodging | ₩283,839 | 12.6% |
| Transport | ₩204,485 | 9.1% |
| The other seven items | the rest | 31.1% |
Health ties with housing as the second-largest item after food. But this ₩300k is what the household paid directly (out-of-pocket charges, medicines and so on), so it is not the same measure as the per-person care spending above (₩442k a month), which includes what insurance paid — this is per household, without the insurer's share. Shares are our arithmetic on the total; the source's item lines sum to ₩2 more than the total because of rounding.
Set against the “adequate” cost above: the pension survey's ₩2.981m for a couple is a little over ₩700k higher than the ₩2.254m households headed by someone 60+ actually spend (our arithmetic). The survey's “adequate” is an aspiration; household spending is what was spent. The gap between the two is the distance between the retirement people want and the one they are living.
Why the national pension isn't enough
The average national pension is well below the adequate cost — even a couple both collecting struggles to reach half of it.
The agency statistics say the same thing. The Ministry of Data and Statistics' 2025 Statistics on the Aged records that in 2023, 90.9% of people 65 and over received a pension, at a monthly average of ₩695,000. That is pension income in total, per person, not the national pension alone, and the summary does not say which schemes it covers, so we do not assert more than that. Even so: nine in ten receive something, and it averages under ₩700,000 a month against the adequate cost of ₩1.976m.
| Item | Approx. |
|---|---|
| Couple adequate cost | ₩2.981M/mo |
| National pension (couple, illustrative) | ~₩1M/mo |
| Shortfall | ~₩1.98M/mo |
You fill this with company and personal pensions and savings — hence the three-tier structure built on top of the national pension.
For scale: national pension statistics show 6,535,724 old-age pension recipients as of the end of March 2026, or 84.7% of all recipients, with 7,718,639 recipients in total — up sharply from 5,388,022 at the end of 2020.
Estimating your retirement lump sum
Needed fund ≈ monthly shortfall × 12 × expected retirement years
A ₩1.5M shortfall over 25 years ≈ ₩450M. Inflation and returns shift this, but the point is a rough sense of scale. Use the compound calculator and the pension calculator.
The three pillars that fill the gap
| Pillar | What it is | The point |
|---|---|---|
| 1st — national pension | Baseline income | The longer you paid in, the larger it is |
| 2nd — company pension | Employer-funded (DB or DC) | With DC, how it is invested matters (DB vs DC) |
| 3rd — personal pension | Pension savings, IRP — your own | And a tax credit on top (pension savings and IRP) |
If income is too tight to reach the third pillar, the basic pension paid to low-income people over 65 is itself a strand of retirement income. The stretch between leaving work and the pension starting is covered separately in the income gap guide.
Where retirement income comes from
| Source | Note |
|---|---|
| National pension | Lifelong, inflation-linked; depends on years paid |
| Company pension | Employer-funded; DC returns matter (DB vs DC) |
| Personal pension/savings | Self-funded; fills the shortfall (pension savings and IRP) |
| Work income | Part-time after retirement; useful in the gap |
| Basic pension | For low-income over-65s |
The bigger your share of lifelong pensions, the safer against longevity risk. The stretch between leaving work and the pension starting is covered in the income gap guide. Turning the home itself into income, when the pensions fall short, is covered in the housing pension guide.
A worked case: 55, with retirement in sight
Say a 55-year-old employee wants 3 million won a month for a couple in retirement. ① Check the expected national pension with a calculator (say 1.2 million a month for the two of you) → ② review what the DC company pension is on track to hold → ③ plan to cover the shortfall — around 1.8 million a month — from personal pensions and savings → ④ pay into pension savings and an IRP over the working years still left, collecting the tax credit as you go. Even if it feels late, ten years builds a great deal.
What to do now — a checklist
- ☐ Fix your own target for monthly spending (adequate or minimum, adjusted for where you live and how you house yourself)
- ☐ Check your expected national pension
- ☐ Review what the company pension (DB or DC) holds and how it is invested
- ☐ Work out the monthly shortfall, then the lump sum it implies
- ☐ Plan to cover that shortfall from personal pensions and savings
- ☐ Check that medical costs sit as their own line
- ☐ Living alone, budget about two-thirds of the couple figure, not half
Questions you may have
Isn't ₩2.981M too much for a couple?
It varies. Owning your home with low spending, the minimum of ₩2.166M can work. Set a target for your situation.
Does living alone cost half as much?
No. The single adequate figure of ₩1.976M is about two-thirds of the couple's ₩2.981M. Budgeting half understates your shortfall.
Is the national pension really that small?
It's below the adequate cost on average, so extend your contribution years and add company and personal pensions. Past 60, voluntary continued enrolment runs to the day before your 65th birthday.
I'm in my 50s — too late?
No. Ten to fifteen years of compounding and tax credits still make a large difference; spending control and maximising the national pension matter more the later you start.
How many retirement years should I assume?
With rising life expectancy, 25 to 30 years is the prudent planning range — but that is our own margin. The official figure is 21.5 years of life expectancy at 65 in 2023 (19.2 for men, 23.6 for women; Ministry of Data and Statistics, 2025 Statistics on the Aged). Planning longer than the average is a choice about outliving it, and the way to cover that is to raise the share of income that lasts for life.
From 65 senior discounts trim living costs — subways, palaces and museums are free (senior discounts at 65).
Sources and where to check
- National Pension Service — press release on the 2024 Korean Retirement and Income Study, 10th supplementary survey (posted 31 December 2025, by the National Pension Research Institute). Source of ₩1.392M / ₩1.976M for a single person, ₩2.166M / ₩2.981M for a couple, the 68.5 average onset age and the 5,138 household, 8,394 person sample.
- National Health Insurance Service — Health iN magazine, issue 152. Source of the ₩31.1173 trillion total, the ₩4,387,000 per-person annual cost and the 39.9% share.
- National Pension Service — national pension statistics — benefit payments (as of end-March 2026). Source of the 6,535,724 (84.7%) old-age recipients and the 7,718,639 total.
- Ministry of Data and Statistics, Household Income and Expenditure Survey — via KOSIS — “Monthly household income and expenditure by age of head (nationwide, 1+ person)”, Q4 2024. Source of ₩2,254,233 monthly consumption for households headed by someone 60+ and the item lines (food ₩456,350, housing ₩304,004, health ₩303,633 and so on), with 1.91 members and a head aged 69.7 on average. Checked 21 September 2026.
- Ministry of Data and Statistics (formerly Statistics Korea) — 2025 Statistics on the Aged (29 September 2025). Source of ₩5.306m per person in 2023 care spending and ₩1.252m out of pocket, 21.5 years of life expectancy at 65 (19.2 men, 23.6 women), 90.9% pension coverage at ₩695,000 a month, ₩465.94m average net worth of households headed by someone 65+ in 2024 and the 39.8% relative poverty rate for those 66+ in 2023. Checked 21 September 2026.
Written as of July 2026. The minimum and adequate living costs and the onset age come from the pension service's press release, and recipient numbers from the service's statistics. On 21 September 2026 the care-spending figure was moved to the 2023 value (₩5.306m) — the old one was a 2018 number from the insurer's magazine, and the note that the statistics agency “would not open” was out of date: Statistics Korea is now the Ministry of Data and Statistics at mods.go.kr, and it opens. Pension coverage, the monthly average and life expectancy at 65 were filled from the same release. The actual spending breakdown of households headed by someone 60+ now comes from the household survey tables (Q4 2024). The shortfall and required-fund calculations in this article are simple arithmetic on the survey figures, not agency-published values. This is general information, not financial advice — confirm your own projected pension with the National Pension Service on 1355.
