Women are more than twice as likely as men to have no pension with 20% of women retiring in 2012 depending on the state pension compared with just 8% of men.
The average person planning to retire this year will look to the state for 34% of their income, with state pension payments set to rise to £107.45 a week for single people from Friday 6 April 2012.
Company pensions (35%) are the second highest source of income and the remaining 30% comes from a mixture of savings, investments, personal pension savings, part time work and money from family members.
The Prudential research also shows that one quarter (26%) of people retiring this year either overestimate by more than £500 a year what the state pension pays or simply do not know.
Vince Smith-Hughes, retirement income expert at Prudential, said: “While the state pension is a safety net for pensioners in the UK, it should only ever be regarded as part of an overall retirement plan.
“For far too many people, the state pension has become the default income option in retirement.
“Even those who have some private provision depend so heavily on the state that it makes up a third of their retirement income.”
Regionally, people retiring this year in the Midlands are the most likely in the UK to rely on the state pension (40%).
This compares with a quarter (28%) of those in Scotland, who claim that they will be the least reliant on the state for their retirement income.
