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Social Security Program Fact Sheet

Beneficiary data Family benefit data Trust fund data

Our semi-annual Fact Sheet on the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Program provides recent information on the number of beneficiaries and their average benefit amount, measures of protection provided by Social Security, and trust fund financial data. The latest Fact Sheet is shown below. To print the Fact Sheet, we recommend the PDF version. (PDF requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or similar reader.)

FACT SHEET ON THE OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS, AND DISABILITY INSURANCE PROGRAM

A. Beneficiaries in Current-Payment Status, December 31, 2007

Type of benefit			Number of beneficiaries [In thousands]	Monthly rate [In millions]	Average monthly amount
Total			49,865	$49,218	a
	Retired workers and their family members, total		34,450	35,559	a
		Retired workers	31,525	34,001	$1,079
		Spouses	2,431	1,292	532
		Children	494	266	538
	Survivors of deceased workers, total		6,495	5,990	a
		Children	1,892	1,332	704
		Widowed mothers and fathers with child beneficiaries in their care	165	129	782
		Aged widow(er)s, and aged parents	4,213	4,383	1,040
		Disabled widow(er)s	225	145	646
	Disabled workers and their family members, total		8,920	7,669	a
		Disabled workers	7,101	7,131	1,004
		Spouses	154	41	266
		Children	1,665	498	299
a Since the benefit amounts for workers and for the various types of family members and survivors are based on different proportions of the worker's benefit, average monthly amounts for groups of these different kinds of beneficiaries are not meaningful.

 

B. Selected Categories of Beneficiaries (Included Above) in Current-Payment Status, December 31, 2007

Type of benefit		Number of beneficiaries [In thousands]	Monthly rate [In millions]
Disabled beneficiaries (OASDI)—Workers, disabled children aged 18 and over, and disabled widow(er)s		$8,121	$7,801
Children (OASDI)		4,051	2,096
	Student children	137	83
	Disabled children aged 18 and over	795	525
	Children under age 18	3,120	1,488
Survivor children and widowed mothers and fathers		2,056	1,461
Beneficiaries aged 62 and over (OASDI)		39,512	41,084
Beneficiaries aged 65 and over (OASDI)		35,119	36,850

 

C. Average Monthly Family Benefits in Current-Payment Status, December 31, 2007

Selected family a group	Number of families [In thousands]	Average family benefit	Average number of beneficiaries per family
Retired worker alone	28,790	$1,066	1.000
Retired worker and spouse, aged 62 and over	2,318	1,761	2.000
Disabled worker, spouse under full retirement age, and 1 or more children	76	1,689	3.941
Widowed parent and 2 children	52	2,221	3.000
Children of deceased workerb	1,125	936	1.344
Aged widow(er) alone	4,039	1,040	1.000
a A family means beneficiaries entitled on one worker's account. b In most cases, the family includes a widowed parent whose benefits are withheld due to earnings.

 

D. Measures of Protection

1. Coverage
   About 165 million people will work in OASDI-covered employment in 2008.

   About 96 percent of workers in paid employment and self-employment are covered or eligible for coverage under the program.

2. Benefit receipt among the elderly
   As of December 31, 2007, about 91 percent of the population aged 65 and over were receiving benefits.
3. Protection for survivors of young workers
   About 97 percent of persons aged 20-49 who worked in covered employment in 2007 have acquired survivorship protection for their children under age 18 (and surviving spouses caring for children under age 16).
4. Disability protection
   About 91 percent of persons aged 21-64 who worked in covered employment in 2007 can count on monthly cash benefits if they suffer a severe and prolonged disability.

 

E. Operations of OASI and DI Trust Funds, Combined
[In billions]

			Calendar year 2006	Fiscal year 2007	Cumulative 1937 through end of —
					Calendar year 2006	Fiscal year 2007
Income			$744.9	$771.8	$11,468.5	$12,046.7
	Contributions		625.6	647.4	10,242.2	10,752.1
	Other		119.3	124.4	1,226.4	1,294.6
Expenditures			555.4	585.3	9,420.4	9,866.1
	Benefit payments		546.2	575.8	9,221.8	9,659.4
		OASI	454.5	481.8	8,043.0	8,409.7
		DI	91.7	94.0	1,178.9	1,249.6
	Other		9.2	9.5	198.6	206.8
Assets, end of period			2,048.1	2,180.6	2,048.1	2,180.6
Note: Totals may not equal the sums of rounded components.

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