December 31 2019 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, December 31, 2019

Type of benefit			Number of beneficiaries [In thousands]	Monthly rate^a [In millions]	Average monthly amount^a
Total			64,064	$88,523	^b
	Retired workers and their family members, total		48,227	70,181	^b
		Retired workers	45,094	67,770	$1,503
		Spouses	2,431	1,911	786
		Children	702	501	713
	Survivors of deceased workers, total		5,912	7,204	^b
		Children	1,916	1,727	902
		Widowed mothers and fathers with child beneficiaries in their care	117	121	1,034
		Aged widow(er)s, and aged parents	3,633	5,168	1,423
		Disabled widow(er)s	246	187	760
	Disabled workers and their family members, total		9,925	11,139	^b
		Disabled workers	8,378	10,537	1,258
		Spouses	113	41	362
		Children	1,434	560	391
^a Benefit amounts represent the monthly amount due to beneficiaries in current-payment status for December 31, 2019. 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, December 31, 2019

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		9,765	$11,667
Children (OASDI)		4,051	2,788
	Student children	113	90
	Disabled children aged 18 and over	1,141	942
	Children under age 18	2,798	1,756
Survivor children and widowed mothers and fathers		2,033	1,848
Beneficiaries aged 62 and over (OASDI)		53,571	78,062
Beneficiaries aged 65 and over (OASDI)		48,653	71,994
^a Benefit amounts represent the monthly amount due to beneficiaries in current payment status for December 31, 2019. 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,December 31, 2019

Selected family^a group	Number of families [In thousands]	Average family benefit^b	Average number of beneficiaries per family
Retired worker alone	42,197	$1,489	1.000
Retired worker and spouse, aged 62 and over	2,278	2,531	2.000
Disabled worker, spouse under full retirement age, and 1 or more children	38	2,178	3.914
Widowed parent and 2 children	35	2,907	3.000
Children of deceased worker^c	1,236	1,166	1.313
Aged widow(er) alone	3,451	1,421	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 December 31, 2019. 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 178 million people will work in OASDI-covered employment in 2020.
We estimate that about 93 percent of workers in paid employment and self-employment are covered under the OASDI program.

Benefit receipt among the elderly
As of December 31, 2019, 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 95 percent of persons aged 20-49 who worked in covered employment in 2019 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 2019 can count on monthly cash benefits if they suffer a severe and prolonged disability.

E. Operations of OASI and DI Trust Funds, Combined, in 2019
[In billions]

			Calendar year	Fiscal year
Income			$1,061.8	$1,051.1
	Payroll tax contributions		944.5	932.4
	Reimbursement from General Revenue		^a	^a
	Taxation of benefits		36.5	36.1
	Interest and other income		80.8	82.5
Costs			1,059.3	1,044.5
	Total benefit payments		1,047.9	1,033.0
		OASI	902.8	888.1
		DI	145.1	144.9
	Railroad Retirement transfer		4.9	4.9
	Administrative expenditures		6.4	6.6
Asset reserves, end of period			2,897.4	2,900.7
^a Less than $50,000,000. Note: Totals may not equal the sums of rounded components.

Social Security Program Fact Sheet