The average age at which people in the Netherlands retire has topped 65 for the first time, national statistics office CBS said on Monday.

In 2019, the average retirement age hit 65 and one month, four months up on 2018.

From the turn of the century up to 2006, the average retirement age was just 61, but since then the government has implemented a string of measure to boost this, phasing out early retirement schemes and increasing the state pension age to its current level of 66 years and four months.

Despite the rise, people in the 45 to 65 age bracket say they would like to stop work earlier and 34% of people bowing out of paid work last year were under the age of 65.

In 2006, 88% of people stopped work before they reached the age of 65 and 25% were under the age of 60.

Last year, 3.2 million people in the Netherlands were claiming state pension benefits out of a population of 17.4 million.