The 25-35 age group accounts for the largest number of NPS subscribers, shows PFRDA report

NPS is a defined contribution pension scheme which was first introduced on January 1, 2004.

The 25-30 and 30-35 age groups had the most number of National Pension Scheme (NPS) subscribers in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. Those aged 25-30 and 30-35 had 59,688 and 54,931 female NPS subscribers, respectively, and 123,907 and 140,885 male subscribers, in the financial year 2022-23.

With those aged 18-20 focused on studying, it’s no surprise there’s not much interest in NPS subscription within this age group. To be sure, the next age group of 20-25 did have a fair number of subscribers – 65,156 in 2022-23 -- under the NPS All Citizen sector.

But it is the 25-30 and 30-35 age groups that have the highest number of subscribers both under the All Citizen Sector and the Corporate Sector of NPS, according to the recently released Handbook of National Pension System (NPS) Statistics – 2023. The handbook was compiled by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

The report further segregates this data based on gender – male, female and transgender. The age-wise and gender-wise break-up of subscribers is available only for the All Citizen and Corporate Sectors of the NPS.

NPS is a defined contribution pension scheme which was first introduced for Central and State Government employees on January 1, 2004. It was extended to all Indian citizens from May 1, 2009. NPS subscribers are divided into what are called sectors - CG Sector (central government employees), SG Sector (state government employees), Corporate Sector (private sector employees), All Citizen Sector (individuals voluntarily subscribing to NPS), NPS Lite and APY (Atal Pension Yojana).

The latter two provide a social security net to the economically disadvantaged.

All Citizen Sector

Going by the 2022-23 data for the All Citizen Sector, the 25-30 and 30-35 age groups with 59,688 and 54,931 subscribers, respectively, account for the largest number of women subscribers. Similarly, for men, the 30-35 and 25-30 age groups account for the highest concentration of male subscribers at 1,40,885 and 123,907, respectively. In case of transgender subscribers, the 45-50 and 55-60 age groups have the largest numbers of subscribers, though the numbers themselves are very small (33 altogether).

Overall, men accounted for 71.5 percent, women for 28.5 percent and transgenders for 0.01 percent of the total NPS subscribers of 844,555 under the All Citizen Sector in 2022-23. This was sharply up from 130,271 subscribers in 2015-16.

During this period, not only had the absolute number of women subscribers gone up from just 27,989 in 2015-16 to 240,000 in 2022-23, their share too had risen from 21.5 percent to 28.5 percent. This takes into account all age groups for the All Citizen Sector.

On the other hand, while the number of male subscribers had gone up from 102,279 to 603,950 their share had fallen from 78.5 percent to 71.5 percent between 2015-16 and 2022-23. During the same period, the number of transgender subscribers had gone up from 3 to 115.

Also read: NPS Equity funds shine, but struggles to beat broader indices

Corporate Sector

In case of the Corporate Sector too (which has far fewer subscribers compared to the All Citizen Sector), the highest number of male and women subscribers were concentrated in the 26-35 age groups.

The total number of NPS subscribers under this sector was up from 101,557 in 2015-16 to 155,217 in 2022-23. But while the absolute number of woman subscribers had risen from 24,590 to 35,852, their share had fallen marginally from 24.2 percent to 23.1 percent during this period.

In case of male subscribers, their absolute numbers were up quite a bit from 76,966 to 119,362, but their share was only slightly higher at 76.9 percent in 2022-23 (up from 75.8 percent in 2015-16).

The number of transgender subscribers had remained stagnant if we look at the start and end years– 1 in 2015-16 to 3 in 2022-23. In between, their numbers went from 30 in 2019-20 to 21 in 2020-21 to 11 in 2021-22.

Also read: Why are you investing in National Pension Scheme? PFRDA wants to know