Saudi tops Gulf pension rankings in 2026 global index

For the workers, retirees and families who rely on Saudi Arabia’s retirement system, the numbers behind this year’s global pension rankings translate into a familiar question: will the money be there when it is needed? The 2026 Marsh CFA Institute Global Pension Index offers a measure of reassurance. The Kingdom placed first among Gulf Cooperation Council states and 12th worldwide out of 55 pension systems, with an overall score of 73.2 out of 100, up from 67.6 in 2025.

The climb represents a striking journey for the people whose working lives are shaped by these rules. In 2022, Saudi Arabia ranked 27th among 44 systems. Three years later, it stands 12th, an advance of 15 places, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Behind the rankings are three pillars that describe how a retirement system actually treats its participants. Adequacy speaks to whether benefits are enough to live on. Sustainability asks whether promises can be kept over the long run. Integrity measures the governance and trust that surround people’s contributions. Saudi Arabia improved in all three. Its integrity score rose 9.3 points to 83.5, earning an A rating in that category, the highest classification. The sustainability score increased to 61.2 from 54.6, while adequacy climbed to 77.2 from 75. The system overall retained a B grade.

For beneficiaries, the integrity gains carry particular weight. The SPA report attributed the Kingdom’s progress to governance reforms, regulatory enhancements, data modernization and stronger safeguards for pension-scheme beneficiaries, the kind of changes that determine how confidently people can plan for the years after their paychecks stop.

Meanwhile, the B grade placed Saudi Arabia ahead of several long-established systems that received the same overall rating, including the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Hong Kong, while it led all participating Gulf nations. The full findings are available through Arab News at https://www.arabnews.com/business/saudi-arabia-ranks-first-in-gcc-12th-globally-in-2026-pension-index-3008156.

The index itself is a broad exercise. Published in collaboration with the Monash Centre for Financial Studies, its 18th edition assessed 55 retirement income systems using more than 50 indicators, and the systems covered account for roughly 66 percent of the world’s population. That scale matters for ordinary savers: a ranking that spans most of humanity gives households in any one country a sense of how their retirement protections compare with those of peers elsewhere.

The results arrive at a moment of concrete change for contributors. The Kingdom is implementing pension reforms approved in 2024, and the new Social Insurance Law took effect on July 3, 2024. Under that law, people entering the workforce without previous contribution periods under the existing civil pension or social insurance systems face a retirement age of 65 and revised early-retirement eligibility. Specified changes also affect certain existing contributors, meaning the new rules touch both newcomers and some who have been paying in for years. The reforms are carried out through the General Organization for Social Insurance, with the stated aims of improving retirement benefits and strengthening the system’s long-term sustainability.

Separately, a BlackRock study published in June pointed to opportunities to expand retirement savings in Saudi Arabia and to channel more household savings into long-term investments. For families weighing how much to set aside, the study suggested such a shift could deepen financial markets and support economic diversification, linking individual saving decisions to the wider direction of the economy.

Taken together, the picture is of a system in transition for the people inside it: contributors adjusting to a new retirement age, beneficiaries benefiting from tighter safeguards, and households being encouraged to think of retirement saving as part of long-term financial life. The 2026 index suggests that the machinery behind those personal plans is being judged more favorably than at any point in the assessment’s recent history, and that the improvements are broad enough to register across every dimension that shapes a retiree’s outcome. Whether the next edition shows the same trajectory may depend on how the 2024 reforms settle in for the workers now living under them.