Cyprus ranks among the EU countries where citizens are expected to remain in the labour market the longest, with an expected working life duration of 39.5 years in 2025, according to the latest Eurostat data. This is two years above the EU average of 37.5 years, confirming the country’s relatively strong position in the European labour market.
EU comparison+
The Netherlands tops the ranking with 44 years, followed by Sweden (43.4), Denmark (42.6) and Estonia (41.5). The lowest figures were recorded in Romania (32.7), Italy (33.0), Bulgaria (34.6) and Greece (35.3 years).
Gender gap
The data shows a clear gap between men and women in Cyprus. Men are expected to remain in the labour market for 42.1 years, compared with 36.7 years for women, a gap of 5.4 years that is wider than the EU average of 4.1 years.
A decade of improvement
Despite the gap, the figures show improvement over the past decade. Between 2016 and 2025, expected working life duration in Cyprus rose by 3.5 years, one of the highest increases in the EU. The increase was 3.3 years for men and 3.6 years for women, reflecting the gradual rise in women’s employment participation.
EU-wide trends
Across the EU, men are generally expected to work longer than women, with northern European countries showing gender gaps below the EU average of 4.1 years. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were the only EU countries with a negative gender gap, meaning women there are expected to work longer than men, by 1.3, 0.9 and 0.7 years respectively. Among the remaining countries, Finland recorded the smallest gender gap at just 0.7 years. At the other end of the scale, the largest gender gaps in 2025 were recorded in Italy (8.9 years), Romania (6.9 years), Greece (6.7 years) and Malta (6.3 years).
Expected working life duration increased in every EU country between 2016 and 2025. Four countries recorded a significant rise of four years or more: Malta (4.9 years), Hungary and Ireland (both 4.2 years), and the Netherlands (4.1 years). Malta and Hungary, which had below-average expected working life duration in 2016, saw sharp increases that brought them above the EU average by 2025. The main driver of Malta’s exceptional rise was a significant increase in women’s working life duration, up 7.8 years, the largest increase recorded in any EU country.
By contrast, Romania, Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria recorded relatively stable expected working life duration, with increases of two years or less. A notable trend in most EU countries was that women’s working life duration increased more than men’s, with the exception of Denmark, Romania, Sweden and Greece. In Malta, Estonia and Hungary, the increase was significantly higher for women than for men. In Slovenia, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Belgium, the increases for men and women were roughly the same.