When can I retire in Poland? Retirement age calculator

The general retirement age in Poland is 60 for women and 65 for men (Art. 24(1) of the Act of 17 December 1998 on pensions from the Social Insurance Fund). It applies to people born after 31 December 1948. Besides age, ZUS requires only that you were covered by pension and disability insurance for at least 1 day. The length of your contribution record is not a condition, but the contributions on your account decide how large the pension is.

The year you reach the age is your birth year plus 60 (women) or plus 65 (men). The day is the same as your birthday:

The law was checked on 12 October 2026 in the consolidated text of the Act published in Dz.U. 2025 item 1749. Later amendments (Dz.U. 2026 items 26 and 425) do not change Art. 24(1). The Act is available in Polish in ISAP.

You reach retirement age on your birthday in the year you turn 60 or 65. The basis is the second sentence of Art. 112 of the Civil Code: when a person's age is calculated, the term runs out at the start of the last day. The right to a pension arises on the day all conditions are met (Art. 100(1) of the Pension Act).

If you were born on the 31st of a month, nothing shifts: the same day and month exist every year. The only tricky date is 29 February.

Born on 29 February. The first sentence of Art. 112 says that if the last month of a term has no corresponding day, the term ends on the last day of that month. In a year when February has 28 days, you reach the age on 28 February, not on 1 March. In a leap year it is 29 February. A woman born on 29 February reaches 60 on 29 February, because the year 60 years later is a leap year too. A man born on 29 February reaches 65 on 28 February, because the year 65 years later is never a leap year. The provision does not mention 29 February explicitly: the result follows from its wording. If a decision depends on a single day, ask ZUS.

The "age today" in the calculator uses the date in Poland (Europe/Warsaw time zone), so the result does not depend on your browser settings. See also the age calculator.

No. The procedure starts with an application (Art. 116(1) of the Pension Act). ZUS grants a pension on its own initiative only in specific cases, for example in place of a disability pension you already receive (Art. 24a).

• Form and place: you can submit the EMP form through the PUE/eZUS portal, in person or through a representative at any ZUS office (in writing or orally for the record), by post or through a Polish consulate.
• Timing: according to ZUS, no earlier than 30 days before the last condition is met. An earlier application ends in a refusal that states what is missing. The calculator shows this day as "earliest".
• Payment: a pension is paid from the day the right arises, but no earlier than from the month the application was submitted (Art. 129(1)). If you apply in later months after reaching the age, the right is set from the month of the application.
• Decision: ZUS issues it within 30 days of clarifying the last circumstance. You can appeal within one month of receiving the decision, to the regional court (labour and social security court).
• Employer: with the employee's consent, the employer must prepare the pension application and pass it to ZUS no later than 30 days before the planned retirement date (Art. 125(1)(3)).

Reaching retirement age does not end your employment contract. Once you reach 60 (women) or 65 (men), a pensioner has no earnings limits. The exception: if after acquiring the right you keep working for the same employer without terminating the employment relationship, the pension is suspended (Art. 103(2) and Art. 103a). If you end your contract because you are retiring, you may be entitled to a retirement severance payment, which you can work out in the severance pay calculator. Check the notice period in the notice period calculator and unused leave in the annual leave calculator.

Official information about the application is on the ZUS website (in Polish, checked on 12 October 2026). You can estimate the amount in the ZUS pension calculator (in Polish) and your net pay in the salary calculator.

The Act of 11 May 2012 (Dz.U. 2012 item 637) raised the retirement age step by step from 1 January 2013, by one month for each quarter of birth, up to 67. It covered women born from 1 January 1953 and men born from 1 January 1949. Under the table in that Act, a man born in the last quarter of 1950 would reach retirement age at 66, and a woman born in the last quarter of 1955 at 61.

The Act of 16 November 2016 (Dz.U. 2017 item 38) restored the age of 60 for women and 65 for men from 1 October 2017. The tables in Art. 24(1a) and (1b) were repealed, and Art. 24(1) now reads as described above.

The calculator applies current law to every birth year. It does not reconstruct the age that applied in 2013-2017, so it cannot tell when a given person could have retired then. If the date falls before 1 October 2017 for a birth year covered by the reform, the result includes a note about it. People who retired in that period received their pension under the rules of the time.

The general age of 60 and 65 does not apply to everyone. A few separate rules, which this calculator does not cover:

• Bridging pension (emerytura pomostowa): under Art. 4 of the Act of 19 December 2008 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2024 item 1696), among other conditions you must be born after 31 December 1948, have at least 15 years of work in special conditions or of a special nature, be at least 55 (women) or 60 (men), and have at least 20 (women) or 25 (men) years of contribution and non-contributory periods.
• Uniformed services: officers of the Police, Border Guard, State Fire Service, Prison Service and other listed services get their pension under a separate Act of 18 February 1994 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 505). Under Art. 12(1) it is due to an officer released from service who has at least 15 years of service on the day of release.
• Farmers' pension from KRUS: the age is also 60 (women) and 65 (men), but you must have been covered by farmers' pension and disability insurance for at least 25 years (Art. 19(1) of the Act of 20 December 1990, consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 item 1770). Insurance in KRUS alone does not meet the conditions for a ZUS pension.

The rules were checked in the consolidated texts of the Acts on 12 October 2026. For these pensions the detailed conditions of the Act matter, so confirm them with ZUS or KRUS.

A long-service pension (emerytura stażowa), meaning a pension regardless of age after a long enough record, does not exist in the current law. Two bills that would introduce it are before the Sejm of the 10th term:

• a citizens' bill, Sejm paper no. 27 (submitted to the Sejm on 30 September 2021),
• a bill by members of parliament, Sejm paper no. 187, dated 30 January 2024.

The bills provide for 35 years of contribution and non-contributory periods for women and 40 years for men. Paper no. 187 adds a condition: the pension calculated under the defined-contribution formula must be at least equal to the minimum pension. After the first reading on 8 February 2024, both bills were referred to the Social Policy and Family Committee. The Sejm register shows no later stages (checked on 12 October 2026).

Until a law is passed and published, the age of 60 and 65 applies. The calculator uses only the law in force.