London: An annual survey showed Iceland offers the best pension system in the world. Britain slipped to 10th place in the world rankings, with the Netherlands and Denmark coming in second and third, according to the annual survey report released on Tuesday.

Iceland scored top marks overall for the second year running for the level of private and public sector pension benefits available, the sustainability of the system to last decades into the future and the quality of its governance, according to the survey by pension consultants Mercer.

However, the UK scored more highly than the 20th-ranked United States, particularly over the adequacy of retirement provision and the integrity of the system.

Britain was also higher than Germany, France and Italy, which scored poorly on the sustainability of their provisions and came in at 17th, 22nd and 32nd place respectively, while Canada slipped to 13th place from 12th last year.

Japan was ranked in 35th place, China in 36th and India at 41.

Mexico shot eight places up the rankings to 29 due to pension reform, Mercer said.

The survey compares 44 retirement income systems globally and covers 65% of the world's population. It was conducted by the Mercer CFA Institute with Monash Business School.