More than 8 million people now receive National Pension benefits ... 7 in 10 get less than 600,000 won a month

[Financial News] The number of people receiving National Pension benefits surpassed 8 million this year. It has doubled in the 11 years since topping 4 million in 2015. The number is expected to reach 10 million by 2030, but about 7 in 10 recipients were found to receive less than 600,000 won a month. Although the number of National Pension recipients is rising rapidly, there are concerns that the benefits remain insufficient to support people in retirement.
According to the National Pension Service (NPS)’s “Published Statistics on the National Pension” on the 1st, a total of 8,062,142 people received National Pension benefits at least once from January through July this year. The figure includes people who received lump-sum payments as well as old-age pensions. It also includes people who died after receiving benefits during that period.
The number of National Pension recipients first exceeded 4 million in 2015, reaching 4,028,671. It has since doubled over 11 years as the population has aged rapidly.
The number of recipients is expected to continue growing. According to the medium-term fiscal outlook for 2026–2030 released by the National Pension Research Institute in August this year, the number of recipients for the full year is projected to reach about 8.28 million, with total pension payments amounting to 56 trillion won. The increase is expected to slow somewhat in 2028, when the age at which people can start receiving benefits will rise from 63 to 64, but the number of recipients is projected to grow to about 9 million in 2028 and 10.06 million in 2030.
The issue is the amount of pension people actually receive. Although the number of National Pension recipients is rising rapidly, concerns persist that the average monthly benefit is insufficient to prepare for retirement.
As of July this year, 2,991,230 people—38.0% of the 7,863,299 recipients—received between 200,000 and 400,000 won a month. Those receiving between 400,000 and 600,000 won accounted for 21.2% (1,666,760 people). Recipients in the lowest bracket, receiving less than 200,000 won, numbered 535,279, or 6.8%. Together, these groups made up 66.0% of all recipients, meaning about 2 in 3 received less than 600,000 won a month.
With the number of National Pension recipients nearing 10 million, a key challenge is emerging: not only how to expand the number of recipients, but also how much income the system can actually provide in retirement.

[email protected] Jung Sang-hee Reporter