If you are doing any kind of research into Social Security issues, the Social Security Administration (SSA) website has a ton of information for you. SSA’s Office of Research, Statistics and Policy Analysis produces a plethora of publications covering almost every conceivable Social Security-related topic. Admittedly, some of them are only for serious scholars or historians studying very esoteric subjects. Here is a sample title: “Old Age Insurance for Agricultural Workers in Western Europe.” And here is a real page-turner: “Income of Urban Families and Individuals in Single Family Households.”
But the office also produces some more-mainstream publications that I, and many other researchers, use all the time. One that is updated annually is called the “Annual Statistical Supplement.” There you will find every bit of statistical data you would ever want to know about the Social Security program. Scroll to the bottom of the SSA’s website homepage (SSA.gov) and you’ll find all this stuff under the “Research and Policy” link.
One little booklet that I find very helpful and informative is called “Fast Facts and Figures About Social Security.” It is filled with little snippets of information that are fascinating. I will use the rest of this column to share just a few of these fast facts. (By the way: The latest “Fast Facts and Figures” is the 2025 edition, and most of its numbers are current through 2024.)
Social Security Beneficiaries
There were 68,456,000 people getting Social Security benefits in December 2024. Of that total, 76 percent—or about 52 million people—were getting retirement benefits. Another 7.2 million—or 11 percent—were getting disability benefits. About 8 percent of the total—or 5.7 million people—were getting survivor benefits. The remaining 5 percent—or about 3.6 million people—were getting benefits as spouses or children of retired and disabled workers.
How Many People Filed for Social Security Benefits in 2024?
Benefits were awarded to about 6 million persons; of those, 62 percent were retired workers and 10 percent were disabled workers. The remaining 28 percent were survivors or the spouses and children of retired or disabled workers. Awards to retired workers increased considerably over the past four decades, at a higher rate than that by which awards to disabled workers increased. The annual number of awards to retired workers rose from 1.6 million in 1984 to 3.7 million in 2024, while for disabled workers it increased from 362,000 in 1984 to 595,000 in 2024.
How Old Are Social Security Beneficiaries?
More than four-fifths of all Social Security beneficiaries were aged 62 or older, including 28 percent aged 75 to 84 and 9 percent aged 85 or older. About 9 percent were persons aged 18 to 61. Most of them were receiving benefits as disabled workers, survivors, or dependents. Another 4 percent were children younger than age 18.
Men Versus Women
Of all adults receiving monthly Social Security benefits in 2024, 45 percent were men and 55 percent were women. Among the men, 87 percent were receiving retirement benefits, and 75 percent of the women were getting retirement benefits. Additionally, 12 percent of men were getting disability benefits, and 10 percent of women were on disability. Another 10 percent of the women were getting widow’s benefits and 5 percent were getting benefits as a dependent wife (of a husband who is still alive). On the other hand, less than 1 percent of men were getting benefits as widowers or dependent husbands.
More and More Women Get Their Own Benefits
The proportion of women among retirement beneficiaries more than quadrupled between 1940 and 2024. The percentage climbed from 12 percent in 1940 to 51 percent in 2024. The proportion of women among disability beneficiaries more than doubled between 1957—when disability benefits first became payable—and 2024. The percentage rose steadily from 19 percent in 1957 to 35 percent in 1990 and then to 50 percent in 2024.
Women Who Get Benefits on 2 Accounts
The Social Security Administration calls women who get benefits on their own account and from their husband’s record “dually entitled.” The proportion of women aged 62 or older who are receiving benefits as dependents (that is, on the basis of their spouses’ earnings records only) declined from 57 percent in 1960 to 15 percent in 2024. At the same time, the proportion of women with dual entitlement (that is, paid on the basis of both their own earnings records and those of their spouses) increased from 5 percent in 1960 to 23 percent in 2024.
How Social Security Is Financed
Social Security is largely a pay-as-you-go program. Most of the payroll taxes collected from today’s workers are used to pay benefits to today’s recipients. In 2024, the Social Security Trust Funds collected $1.42 trillion in revenues. Of that amount, 91.2 percent was from payroll tax contributions and reimbursements from the General Fund of the Treasury, and 3.9 percent was from income taxes on Social Security benefits. Interest earned on the government bonds held by the trust funds provided the remaining 4.9 percent of income. And 99.1 percent of the program’s revenues were used to pay monthly Social Security benefits, while just 0.5 percent of revenues went toward administrative expenses and the remaining 0.4 percent involved transfers to the Railroad Retirement Board. (There is a fiduciary relationship between the SSA and the Railroad Retirement Board too messy to explain here.)
As I said, this was just a snippet of the information available in the booklet “Fast Facts and Figures.” And I apologize because this column just contained boring words. The actual booklet is full of colorful charts and graphs to back up all the statistics. To find the booklet, just do a Google search for “Social Security Fast Facts and Figures.” It leads you to the aforementioned “Research and Policy” portion of the SSA website, where you can download the entire publication.
