Canada slips to 21st in global retirement index as inequality widens
The global context advisors should know
While Canada’s domestic picture has its own pressures, the broader GRI report frames the retirement challenge in terms that apply equally here and globally, 78% of investors surveyed by Natixis in 2025 said it is increasingly their responsibility alone to fund retirement, up from 67% a decade earlier.
In Canada, the shift away from defined benefit plans has accelerated that dynamic. According to a 2026 IG Wealth Management Retirement Study cited by Wealth Professional, fewer than half of non-retired Canadians (48%) have any form of workplace pension, and even among those who do, a quarter are unaware of how their plan works.
The GRI’s global analysis also identifies three policy priorities that are reshaping retirement systems worldwide – access, automation and adequacy – and Canada’s own trajectory maps onto each.
On access, the challenge of reaching gig workers, part-time employees and the self-employed mirrors global patterns. On automation, the case for expanding default savings mechanisms is well established. On adequacy, the question of whether Canadians are accumulating assets that can genuinely sustain them – rather than paper wealth concentrated in illiquid real estate – is becoming the central issue of the decade.
“Modernizing retirement means giving individuals a better chance to succeed,” said Liana Magner, Head of Institutional and Retirement in the US at Natixis Investment Managers. “That means expanding access, making it easier to save consistently and helping investors build realistic expectations around the returns, risks and income they will need over a longer retirement.”
