More than half of American workers (57 percent) expect to retire beyond the age of 65 or not at all, according to a Swiss Re global perception survey. Out of those respondents, 19 percent believe they will work at least until the age of 70 and 12 percent believe they won't ever be able to retire.

An additional 21 percent said they didn't know when they would stop working.

Workers in China, Hong Kong and Brazil had a rosier view of their ability to retire, with 78 percent, 45 percent and 42 percent of respondents, respectively, saying they would be able to retire before age 64. In all of the markets surveyed for the Swiss Re report, 38 percent of workers thought they would be able to retire before age 65. Only 22 percent of American thought they would be able to retire by the age of 64.