Only 41% of Saudi expats feel ready for retirement, BlackRock finds

Saudi expats in Saudi Arabia are reporting a much lower level of retirement readiness than Saudi nationals, and BlackRock puts a precise number on it: only 41% of expats say they feel prepared for retirement. That compares with 59% of Saudi nationals, according to BlackRock’s Read on Retirement: GCC 2026 report.

The report does not treat this as a personal finance footnote. It frames the gap as a system problem tied to access to structured pension arrangements, and it connects that to where household money actually sits today. BlackRock says many residents keep savings in cash, gold, and property instead of using structured retirement vehicles.

Zoom out and you get why this matters. Saudi Arabia is in the middle of Vision 2030, a broad economic and social transformation that includes building more resilient long-term savings and retirement systems. In many countries, long-term savings reforms are not just about helping people retire. They also change how much domestic capital is available for investment, and they can deepen local capital markets. BlackRock explicitly argues that Saudi Arabia is at a pivotal stage to strengthen long-term savings systems while supporting the Kingdom’s economic and social transformation.

BlackRock’s data suggests the retirement preparedness divide tracks access to pension structures. It says 36% of Saudi nationals expect to rely on public pensions in retirement, while only 6% of respondents across the region expect to rely on employer-provided retirement schemes. That public-vs-employer split can influence behavior: if workplace plans are rare or not well understood, households have fewer “default” pathways to build long-term retirement assets.

The study also highlights what household savings looks like on the ground. BlackRock says savings remain heavily concentrated in traditional assets, including cash, gold, and property. It warns that this concentration may limit long-term wealth accumulation. It also argues it can reduce the flow of domestic capital into productive investments. Put simply: when savings sit in assets that are not designed to fund long-term retirement outcomes, you may get less growth and fewer dollars moving into channels that build productive investment.

Still, the report finds strong saving behavior overall. The issue is participation in dedicated retirement products and confidence in the path to retirement. For Saudi nationals, retirement saving is not yet a major financial priority: only 19% ranked retirement saving among their top three financial priorities. Expatriates look different. For expatriates, retirement saving ranked as the leading financial priority for 30% of respondents, even though preparedness is lower overall. BlackRock also reports that 42% said they were concerned about having insufficient emergency savings, a reminder that many people may be trying to juggle near-term safety with long-term planning.

Another key theme is incentives, guidance, and workplace access. BlackRock says residents are willing to save more for retirement but lack access to guidance and information. Among Saudi nationals, 92% said they would save more if better incentives were available. The report points to demand for defined contribution workplace pension programmes and voluntary workplace savings schemes.

The workplace access numbers drive home why confidence differs. Among Saudi nationals, 78% of those with access to a workplace retirement scheme felt prepared for retirement, compared with 58% of those without access. For expatriates, preparedness rises to 82% among those with workplace schemes, compared with 39% among those without them. That is an enormous spread for both groups, which suggests that retirement readiness may be less about motivation and more about product access and structure.

For executives and boards, the second-order implication is that retirement systems can become capital markets infrastructure. BlackRock calls robust retirement systems a “capital markets opportunity,” arguing that moving toward funded, long-term savings frameworks could mobilize domestic capital at scale. It says funded defined contribution plans and voluntary workplace savings schemes could create long-term pools of domestic capital, improving retirement outcomes and supporting deeper, more resilient financial markets. For companies thinking about benefits design, advisory partnerships, or long-horizon investment opportunities, this report frames a clear linkage: the products people can actually access affect household confidence today, and the asset pools those products generate can influence market structure tomorrow.