The Economist Online has an interesting chart today on retirement. It shows life expectancies, official retirement ages, and effective retirement ages in 1970 and 2010, for 22 countries.

As the Economist notes,

pensionable ages have failed to keep pace with longevity.This comes at an increasing cost to the state. The OECD expects governments' expenditure on pensions to rise from 8.4% to 11.4% of GDP between 2010 and 2050.

Of the countries included, only four have increased the official retirement age since 1970: U.S., Germany, Poland, and Japan. Many have actually reduced it.