Guide
Retirement age in France: your birth year is the answer
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
The cohort ladder
Service-public's fiche publishes the âge légal ladder by date of birth:
- Born 1 January 1963 - 31 March 1965 — 62 years 9 months
- Born 1 April - 31 December 1965 — 63 years
- Born 1966 — 63 years 3 months
- Born 1967 — 63 years 6 months
- Born 1968 — 63 years 9 months
- Born from 1 January 1969 — 64 years
The fiche also notes a carve-out: the minimum age drops by one year for those born from 1 April 1965 who benefit from at least one quarter of insurance-duration majoration under the listed conditions.
Source: service-public.fr — À quel âge peut-on partir à la retraite ? (fiche F14043), read 10 September 2026.
Legal age is not full-rate age
The number above is when you may start — not when the pension is necessarily complete. France's system pairs the legal age with insurance-duration requirements for a full-rate pension, and the same fiche family covers those trimestres, the automatic full-rate age, and the early-departure routes for long careers. Descriptively: two clocks run — your birth cohort's legal age, and your quarters — and the second one decides the rate.
Source: service-public.fr — fiche F14043 et fiches liées, read 10 September 2026.
60-second check
Not sure the policy you have meets your destination's written rule? Run it through the policy check now, before you build the rest of the file around it.
Check my policyFor movers with mixed careers
Years insured in other EU countries aggregate for qualifying purposes under the EU coordination rules — the French authority runs the double calculation our multi-country pension guide explains, and pays the French share into your account wherever in the EU you live. The healthcare side of a French retirement — S1s, PUMa, and the private cover the visa stage wants — lives in our France guides.
Source: service-public.fr — fiche F14043, read 10 September 2026.