Demography is also important today, but the importance of a reasonable ratio of workers to pensioners has become somewhat less obvious because of the way we now try to ensure financial security in old age. It is probably no coincidence that the Norwegian expression for the end of our working career is “to withdraw with a pension”. The equivalent expression in  1  This figure has been adjusted for estimated extraordinary share dividends as from 2000. 1/7  English, “to retire”, means simply to withdraw. There are no associations with financial benefits. In Norway, everyone is entitled to a state pension at the age of 67. How much each of us will receive depends both on the size of our income through our working career and on the path of growth in the economy. With its current structure, the National Insurance Scheme will be facing a considerable challenge in the future when an increasing proportion of the population is over 67 years old. Many employees receive an extra pension payment in the form of an occupational pension. In Norway, this will soon apply to virtually all employees. Over the past few years, private pension insurance has become more common in Norway. In 2004, individual pension agreements had increased by 13 per cent since 1997. Membership in collective pension schemes increased by 22 per cent in the same period. It is likely that the debate around the state pension system has in some cases generated concern about how much the National Insurance Scheme will provide.
Households that save in banks or invest in other forms of financial assets make funds available to others. Banks convert some households’ savings into loans for other households wishing to finance house purchases, for instance. If we look at the household sector as a whole, savings accounted for about five per cent of household disposable income in 2004,1 which has been the level of saving for the past few years. These are funds that are channelled to the business sector in Norway or abroad to finance investment there. There may be various reasons behind a decision to save. In many cases, the objective is to spread consumption evenly through the course of a lifetime. Another reason may be the desire to leave behind an inheritance. For most people, the level of income will fluctuate through life. Most of our income is earned while we are economically active. Once our working career is over, we will have little to live on if we have not set aside capital as we earn or have secured our retirement by some other means. A hundred years ago, a common way of “saving” for old age was to have a large number of children. A large family increased the probability of some of the children growing up and being able to support their parents when they were old. By looking after family property, and perhaps expanding it, subsequent generations could also be provided for.