This paper uses new evidence available from a unique UK dataset, which combines information from household survey data on individuals' circumstances at or near retirement with information on their lifetime earnings from administrative records, to look at how retirement incomes relate to lifetime earnings. This paper adds to the evidence base on retirement income adequacy and how retirement incomes relate to lifetime earnings in two dimensions. First, we use information on individuals' actual entitlements to state pensions to shed light on the groups for whom previous estimates of state pension entitlement, and hence resource adequacy (see Banks, Emmerson, Oldfield and Tetlow, 2005), could be improved upon. Second, we examine how closely correlated income in retirement is to income during working life and whether the relationship observed differs across groups defined according to various personal characteristics.

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