Between 1965 and 1988, the number of Yugoslavs receiving old-age and disability pensions and survivor benefits rose steeply (see table 6, Appendix). The annual rate of increase was 4 to 7 percent, depending on the republic or province. This growth was considerably higher than the growth in the employment rate, which averaged 2 percent to 4.5 percent annually in the same period. The number of pensioners grew as a result of broader coverage by old-age pension plans, an aging population, and the high disability rate of laborers. The number of persons receiving survivor benefits also increased between 1965 and 1988 as a result of the relatively high accident mortality rate.
In the late 1980s, retirement and disability pensions covered all employed individuals and all self-employed persons outside the agricultural sector. Pensions also were available to private farmers under a voluntary payment plan, and private farmers nearing old age were offered pensions in exchange for the sale of their land to an agricultural cooperative. Retirement age was set at sixty years after at least twenty years of service for men and fifty-five years after at least fifteen years for women. Retirement became mandatory in the early 1970s. The economic crisis of the 1980s jeopardized Yugoslavia's pension system, and in 1990 pensions often went unpaid for months.
Data as of December 1990