General Social Security Statistics
Social Security is a huge program in the U.S., consuming trillions in tax dollars to provide for those who can’t work. However, many retirees and disabled Americans find that their Social Security check is cutting it close at best and inadequate for monthly expenses at worst. Here are the facts:
25.2% of all American adults receive some form of Social Security.
That means just over a quarter of all Americans rely on Social Security for monthly payments. More specifically, around 18% of Americans with Social Security are retirees, 3% are disabled, and 2.3% are survivors.
6.2% of Social Security is funded through a mandatory payroll tax.
This entails employers and employees each paying 6.2% out of wages up to the taxable maximum of $147,000. This program was first founded in 1935 as the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), and the percentage paid in tax hasn’t changed since 1990.
The projected gap between Social Security payouts and the income it receives is 1.2% over the next 75 years.
Unfortunately, Social Security isn’t currently earning enough income from taxes and other forms of funding to meet promised benefits.
For example, Social Security may promise to pay out $1.5 trillion dollars in 2025 but will only make around 1.48 trillion in income. In future years, this will create a major budget deficit that the U.S. government will have to address.
The average monthly disability benefit is only $1,280.
Yearly, that means a disabled individual who relies on Social Security as their primary source of income would only make $15,360 per year. That’s only half of the official U.S. family poverty threshold of $31,661.
As of October 2022, the average Social Security benefit is $1,550.48 per month.
With the maximum Social Security benefit at $3,345. However, on average, recipients will earn just under $20,000 a year. That puts them over $10,000 under the U.S. family poverty threshold.
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