If you're in or approaching retirement, you may well be wondering how much others are collecting in Social Security benefits by age -- perhaps you're wondering about 65-year-olds, for example. Here's a look at the answer:

Source: Social Security Administration, as of December 2025.

Image source: Getty Images.

A striking feature of the table above is the fairly wide discrepancy in benefits between men and women of the same age. Here's the explanation, in case you haven't already guessed it: Benefits are based on one's earnings over a working lifetime (specifically, over your earnings in your 35 highest-earning years), so a lower average benefit is because women have, on average, earned less than men.

That's partly due to women being paid less than men: Per the Economic Policy Institute, in 2025, "women were paid 18.6% less than men on average after controlling for race and ethnicity, education, age, marital status, and state." Also, "Women are paid less than men across all education levels. Women with a graduate degree earn less, on average, than men with only a college degree."

Another factor is that many women end up out of the workforce for a bunch of years, caring for children, aging parents, or others. That makes it hard or impossible for many women to rack up 35 years of documented earnings for the Social Security benefit formula.

If you're a woman and you're not looking forward to lower benefits, there are some ways to increase your future benefits, if you're still working. For example, you might beef up your income by changing jobs or asking for a raise. And if you can, work a few more years to get as close to 35 years of earnings as possible. If you're married, coordinating when to claim with your spouse can be effective as well.