You probably know your Social Security benefit depends on your earnings throughout your career. On the one hand, that's a good thing for workers because it means you have an opportunity to increase your future checks by growing your income today.
On the other hand, a benefit formula that looks at most of your earnings history, as well as your claiming age, makes it difficult to anticipate how much you'll get from the program until you're ready to sign up.
The Social Security Administration can tell you how large your benefit will be as you approach retirement. However, taking the time to understand the difference in average Social Security benefits by age can help you make an educated decision regarding when you should apply to get the most out of the program.
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Why age matters when applying for Social Security
You can apply for Social Security at any point after you turn 62, but 62 isn't your full retirement age (FRA), even if you've quit the workforce by then. Your FRA is a government-assigned age that depends on your birth year, and it's also the age at which you qualify for your primary insurance amount (e.g., your baseline benefit). For most people today, it's 67, though some older Americans reached FRA as early as 65.
Applying for benefits before reaching FRA permanently reduces your monthly checks. You can also delay Social Security beyond FRA and your checks will continue to increase until you qualify for your maximum benefit at age 70. Here's how that plays out for someone with an FRA of 67:
|
Benefits grow by: |
Between ages: |
|---|---|
|
5/12 of 1% per month (5.00% per year) |
62 and 64 |
|
5/9 of 1% per month (6.67% per year) |
64 and 67 |
|
2/3 of 1% per month (8.00% per year) |
67 and 70 |
Data source: Social Security Administration.
You can see how this plays out in the Social Security Administration's own data listing the average monthly benefit for retired workers at every possible claiming age between 62 and 70. Here are the results as of Dec. 2024:
|
Age |
Average Monthly Benefit |
|---|---|
|
62 |
$1,342 |
|
63 |
$1,364 |
|
64 |
$1,425 |
|
65 |
$1,611 |
|
66 |
$1,764 |
|
67 |
$1,930 |
|
68 |
$1,980 |
|
69 |
$2,040 |
|
70 |
$2,148 |
Data source: Social Security Administration. All benefits are rounded to the nearest dollar.
It's worth noting that the current average for all age groups is likely a bit higher than this as average benefits tend to increase over time. The Social Security Fairness Act, passed earlier in the year, also increased benefits significantly for some retirees. However, the general trend remains the same.
Early Social Security claimers tend to receive the smallest monthly benefits. But that doesn't mean that claiming early is always the wrong move.
What to weigh when deciding when you want to apply for Social Security
The data above seems to make a compelling case for waiting to apply for Social Security if you're financially able to do so. And there is truth to that for a lot of people. A National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) survey found that 90% of Americans would collect the largest amount of Social Security over their lifetime by waiting until 70 to file. But there are exceptions.
If you believe your life expectancy will be shorter than average, you'll likely collect more in lifetime benefits claiming at 62 than you will by foregoing years of payments to increase the size of your monthly checks. It's not easy to estimate your life expectancy, but a poor health history is one reason to consider claiming early.
Some married people also choose to claim early. In couples where one person significantly outearned the other, the lower earner might claim Social Security early to help fund their retirement, while the higher earner delays their claim until 70, allowing them to maximize their benefit. And in some cases, when the higher earner files, the lower earner becomes eligible for a spousal benefit that may be worth more than what they're already getting.
A retired worker may also choose to claim early if they have dependents, like minor children, who will only be eligible for Social Security benefits on the worker's record for a limited time or if they want to enable their spouse to claim a spousal benefit sooner. You cannot claim a spousal benefit unless your partner is already on Social Security, and unlike retirement benefits, spousal benefits stop growing at FRA.
Then, there are the people who might want to delay Social Security but cannot afford to. In this case, you might be able to put off your application by a couple of months rather than claiming immediately. This way, you can take advantage of some of the benefits of delaying Social Security without compromising your finances too much.
Every situation is different, and while there are no wrong answers, there are some claiming ages that will probably be more advantageous to you than others. That's why it's worth weighing the pros and cons of every claiming age to decide which is right for you.
You can do this with the help of your free my Social Security account. There's a tool here that gives you benefit projections at every claiming age based on your income history to date and future income projections that you can adjust. Just keep in mind that these estimates could change, especially if you're far off from retirement, so you should repeat this process as you get closer to retirement.
Choose a claiming age, multiply the monthly benefit by 12, and then multiply that by the number of years you expect to collect. This will help you estimate your lifetime benefit. If you can afford to do so, aim to wait until the age you expect to receive the most money overall.
