Objectives To analyze the status quo of projects on pension services funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), with the aim of enlarging the perspective and horizon of related studies, and improving both the quantity and quality of such projects in NSFC. Methods NSFC website was systematically searched to collect information of pension service projects funded by NSFC from 2008 to 2017. SPSS 19.0 software was subsequently applied to analyze the characteristics of the projects in terms of study type, regional distribution, profession and institution, and fund scale, etc. Results A total of 39 projects on pension service were included, among which 12 were focused on related strategies (30.8%), 11 on related models (28.2%), and 6 on the effects of different interventions (15.4%). The 39 projects were unbalanced in terms of geographical distribution, institutions and research types. Conclusions NSFC should facilitate the research of pension service by expanding the related fund scale, increasing the fund support, strengthening the exchange of domestically different regions, and enhancing international cooperation.