June 30 2021 Fact Sheet on Social Security

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.

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

A. Beneficiaries in Current-Payment Status, June 30, 2021

Type of benefit			Number of beneficiaries [In thousands]	Monthly rate^a [In millions]	Average monthly amount^a
Total			65,033	$93,207	^b
	Retired workers and their family members, total		49,677	74,985	^b
		Retired workers	46,738	72,689	$1,555
		Spouses	2,241	1,783	796
		Children	698	513	735
	Survivors of deceased workers, total		5,870	7,319	^b
		Children	1,954	1,801	922
		Widowed mothers and fathers with child beneficiaries in their care	112	118	1,056
		Aged widow(er)s, and aged parents	3,572	5,222	1,462
		Disabled widow(er)s	232	179	771
	Disabled workers and their family members, total		9,486	10,903	^b
		Disabled workers	8,076	10,341	1,280
		Spouses	102	37	359
		Children	1,309	525	402
^a Benefit amounts represent the monthly amount due to beneficiaries in current-payment status for June 30, 2021. These amounts exclude any adjustments to benefits for retroactive payments and certain payment withholding that may be attributable to eligibility in prior months. Therefore, these data do not represent total benefits paid from the trust funds.
^b Because 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, June 30, 2021

Type of benefit		Number of beneficiaries [In thousands]	Monthly rate^a [In millions]
Disabled beneficiaries (OASDI)—Workers, disabled children aged 18 and over, and disabled widow(er)s		9,454	$11,492
Children (OASDI)		3,960	2,839
	Student children	98	84
	Disabled children aged 18 and over	1,146	973
	Children under age 18	2,716	1,782
Survivor children and widowed mothers and fathers		2,066	1,919
Beneficiaries aged 62 and over (OASDI)		55,051	83,071
Beneficiaries aged 65 and over (OASDI)		50,232	77,032
^a Benefit amounts represent the monthly amount due to beneficiaries in current payment status for June 30, 2021. These amounts exclude any adjustments to benefits for retroactive payments and certain payment withholding that may be attributable to eligibility in prior months. Therefore, these data do not represent total benefits paid from the trust funds.

C. Average Monthly Family Benefits in
Current-Payment Status, June 30, 2021

Selected family^a group	Number of families [In thousands]	Average family benefit^b	Average number of beneficiaries per family
Retired worker alone	44,011	$1,543	1.000
Retired worker and spouse, aged 62 and over	2,111	2,587	2.000
Disabled worker, spouse under normal retirement age, and 1 or more children	31	2,230	3.909
Widowed parent and 2 children	33	2,967	3.000
Children of deceased worker^c	1,271	1,196	1.317
Aged widow(er) alone	3,394	1,460	1.000
^a A family means beneficiaries entitled on one worker's account. ^b Benefit amounts represent the monthly amount due to beneficiaries in current payment status for June 30, 2021. These amounts exclude any adjustments to benefits for retroactive payments and certain payment withholding that may be attributable to eligibility in prior months. Therefore, these data do not represent total benefits paid from the trust funds. ^c In most cases, the family includes a widowed parent whose benefits are withheld due to earnings.

D. Measures of Protection

Coverage
We estimate that about 176 million people will work in OASDI-covered employment in 2021.
We estimate that about 94 percent of workers in paid employment and self-employment are covered under the OASDI program.

Benefit receipt among the elderly
As of June 30, 2021, we estimate that about 88 percent of the population aged 65 and over were receiving benefits.

Protection for survivors of young workers
We estimate that about 96 percent of persons aged 20-49 who worked in covered employment in 2020 have acquired survivorship protection for their children under age 18 (and surviving spouses caring for children under age 16).

Disability protection
We estimate that about 89 percent of persons aged 21-64 who worked in covered employment in 2020 can count on monthly cash benefits if they suffer a severe and prolonged disability.

E. Operations of OASI and DI Trust Funds, Combined, in 2020
[In billions]

			Calendar year	Fiscal year
Income			$1,118.1	$1,103.0
	Payroll tax contributions		1,001.3	984.6
	Reimbursement from General Revenue		^a	^a
	Taxation of benefits		40.7	39.6
	Interest and other income		76.1	78.8
Costs			1,107.2	1,095.4
	Total benefit payments^b		1,095.9	1,084.3
		OASI	952.4	940.2
		DI	143.6	144.1
	Railroad Retirement transfer		5.0	5.0
	Administrative expenditures		6.3	6.2
Asset reserves, end of period^b			2,908.3	2,908.2
^a Less than $50,000,000. ^b Benefit payments which were scheduled to be paid on January 3, 2021 were actually paid on December 31, 2020 as required by the statutory provision for early delivery of benefit payments when the normal payment delivery date is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal public holiday. The amount of these payments made on an accelerated basis was approximately $18.7 billion for the OASI Trust Fund and $6.1 billion for the DI Trust Fund. For comparability with the values for historical years, the trust fund operations and asset reserves presented here reflect the 12 months of benefits scheduled for payment each year. Note: Totals may not equal the sums of rounded components.

Social Security Program Fact Sheet