This paper is centered on the complementary roles played by pension communication/information and financial literacy for a sustainable and equitable nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) system at both the micro and macro socioeconomic level. The paper presents new evidence on: (i) the concern of public opinion about pensions in five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), as approximated by Google Trends data
(ii) the relationship between measures of online search volume and coverage by traditional media (i.e., national newspapers)
and (iii) the volume and framing of newspaper coverage for a specific reform (i.e., the 2011 Italian reform). On the demand (users) side, the paper considers pension literacy as an element to increase the effectiveness of reforms.