What the State Pension would actually pay you.

How the two calculations work

The assumptions behind these numbers

• Until the end of 2033 the Department of Social Protection works the rate out two ways, Method 1 the Total Contributions Approach on its own and Method 2 a mix of the Yearly Average rate and the TCA rate, and pays whichever is higher. From 2034 only the Total Contributions Approach applies. This page does the same on the details entered.
• The year the pension starts sets the mix. Everything here assumes you take the pension at 66, so the year you were born sets it. Starting later, at 67 to 70, is not modelled, and the Yearly Average band rates at those ages are not published for 2026.
• The qualifying minimum is 520 paid contributions, ten years. Credits and HomeCaring Periods do not count toward it, however many there are. Below it there is no State Pension (Contributory) under either method. A means-tested State Pension (Non-Contributory) may apply instead, on a different basis, and this page does not calculate it.
• Under the Total Contributions Approach, credited contributions count up to 520, HomeCaring Periods up to 1,040, and the two together up to 1,040. Under the Yearly Average method credited contributions count in full and HomeCaring Periods do not count at all.
• The yearly average is paid plus credited contributions divided by the years from the contribution year you first paid PRSI to the year before you turn 66, rounded half up to a whole number, as the Department does. Below 10 it falls into no band and the Yearly Average method gives nothing. No more than 52 contributions count in any year.
• The Method 2 figure is a percentage of one rate plus a percentage of another and can land on a fraction of a cent. This page rounds it half up to the cent. No published rule governs that rounding, and the most it can move a figure is half a cent a week.
• The Homemaker's Scheme is left out. It drops whole caring years from 1994 on, at most twenty and only years with no credited contributions, out of the years the yearly average divides by. Fewer years means a higher average, so leaving it out can only lower the Method 2 figure. On the details entered, that figure is a floor.
• The Alternative Yearly Average, counted from 1979 and used only when it reaches 48, is left out. It can only raise the Method 2 figure.
• Voluntary contributions and Long-Term Carer's Contributions are left out. Both add to the count and can count toward the 520, so including them could only raise a figure or bring someone over the minimum.
• Contributions in the year you turn 66 count under the Total Contributions Approach but sit outside the inputs, which run to the end of the year before. The TCA figure is a floor by that much, a few weeks' contributions at most.
• Mixed-rate, EU and pro-rata records use different formulas and are not covered. They can give a lower figure, or no entitlement at all, so the floor statement does not extend to them.
• The pension also requires that you first paid PRSI before 56. This page does not check that: an entry at 56 or later can mean no entitlement at all, and the page would still show a figure.
• Before 2002 the contribution year ran from April to April. For a first payment between 1 January and 5 April of a year up to 2001, the box under the entry year counts from the year before, as the Department does; left unticked, the page takes the entry year as entered, and if that is the calendar year of such a payment the years divided by are one too few and the figure may be too high. The floor statement is on the details entered.
• The maximum personal rate is €299.30 a week from January 2026, and the six Yearly Average band rates are the 2026 rates. Rates and rules change, usually at each Budget. The annual figure is 52 weekly payments.
• The rate shown is the personal rate at 66. It does not include an increase for a qualified adult or child, and it does not include the higher rate that applies from age 80.
• Pensions that started before 2025 were awarded under earlier rules and are not covered.
• Figures are illustrations, not a guarantee of any outcome, and not personalised advice.