How the pension is calculated
The pension is calculated from the trailing national average insurable income, your own individual coefficient, and your years of pension service weighted by an annual accrual rate. This page explains each piece and the minimum and maximum pension for 2026.
Three ingredients: reference income, coefficient, and accrual rate
The pension is calculated as the trailing national average insurable income — currently 989,23 €, republished by НОИ every month — multiplied by your own individual coefficient and by your years of pension service, weighted by an annual accrual rate (чл. 70 KSO).
The individual coefficient is not something you work out yourself
The coefficient is built from the ratio between your own monthly insurable income and the national average for that same month, averaged over your entire insured career since 1999. That is a calculation over your whole work history that only НОИ performs from its own records — which is why this page offers no calculator for an expected amount: the input is not something a reader has on hand.
Two accrual rates, by kind of service
Years of pension service enter the calculation at a different annual rate depending on kind:
| Service category | Rate per year |
|---|---|
| Service without category conversion (чл. 70, ал. 1, т. 1) | 1,35 % |
| The category-conversion remainder (чл. 70, ал. 1, т. 2) | 1,20 % |
For most insured people — with no converted category-I/II hazardous-work service — all counted service falls into the first category, which in practice means a flat 1.35% a year.
The minimum pension — two figures within the same year
НОИ states a minimum pension for service and age, set by the 2026 budget act: 322,37 € for 1 January 2026 – 30 June 2026, then from 1 July — 347,51 € for 1 July 2026 – 31 December 2026. The minimum rises mid-year; it is not fixed for the whole of 2026.
The maximum pension
The maximum combined amount of one or more pensions actually paid (excluding supplements) is 1738,40 € for 2026.
What this page does not state
No provision was found capping the individual coefficient itself, upper or lower, or the total years of service the formula counts.
Bulgaria publishes no separate index for revaluing past earnings: every month already enters the coefficient as a ratio to that same month's national average, so there is nothing left to restate in present-day money.