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Research Note #19:
Social Security Benefits as a Percentage of Total Federal Budget
Expenditures |
Presently, the Social Security program is
the largest single item in the annual federal government budget.
As a percentage of total federal expenditures, in 2002 Social
Security benefits were approximately 22.6% of federal expenditures.
As a percentage of federal outlays, Social Security benefits have
ranged from a low of 0.22% (during World War II) to a high of
23.2% in 2001.
There are several other points of interest in the data. The 1950
Amendments, for example, which significantly increased the value
of Social Security benefits, produced the largest year-to-year
jump in the percentage (almost doubling from 1950 to 1951). The
expansions of coverage in the 1954 and 1956 Amendments (and the
addition of disability benefits in 1956) can be seen in its impact
on expenditures. The Amendments of 1972, which were the last major
expansionary amendments, also produced a detectable rise in the
percentage of the federal budget going to Social Security. (The
1977 Amendments scaled-back the level of Social Security benefits--an
effect which is not readily discernable in the Table since this
was primarily a reduction in future levels from what they would
otherwise have been.)
As an interesting point of comparison, even the peak year of
2001 in which expenditures for Social Security topped 23% of the
federal budget, this was far from the most the federal government
has ever committed to social welfare spending. Following the Civil
War, the federal government funded pensions for Union veterans
and their survivors and dependents. In the peak year of 1894,
the government spent 37% of its annual budget on these Civil War
pensions. |
Social Security Benefits as a Percentage
of Total Federal Budget Outlays 1940-2002 [1]
|
Year |
Social Security
Benefit Payments |
Total Federal
Budget
Outlays |
Social
Security as a
Percentage of
Total Outlays |
1940 [2] |
28 |
9,468 |
.29 |
1941 |
91 |
13,653 |
.66 |
1942 |
137 |
35,137 |
.38 |
1943 |
177 |
78,555 |
.22 |
1944 |
217 |
91,304 |
.23 |
1945 |
267 |
92,712 |
.28 |
1946 |
358 |
55,232 |
.64 |
1947 |
466 |
34,496 |
1.35 |
1948 |
558 |
29,764 |
1.87 |
1949 |
657 |
38,835 |
1.69 |
1950 |
781 |
42,562 |
1.83 |
1951 |
1,565 |
45,514 |
3.43 |
1952 |
2,063 |
67,686 |
3.04 |
1953 |
2,717 |
76,101 |
3.57 |
1954 |
3,352 |
70,855 |
4.73 |
1955 |
4,427 |
68,444 |
6.46 |
1956 |
5,478 |
70,640 |
7.75 |
1957 |
6,661 |
76,578 |
8.69 |
1958 |
8,219 |
82,405 |
9.97 |
1959 |
9,737 |
92,098 |
10.57 |
1960 |
11,602 |
92,191 |
12.58 |
1961 |
12,474 |
97,723 |
12.76 |
1962 |
14,365 |
106,821 |
13.44 |
1963 |
15,788 |
111,316 |
14.18 |
1964 |
16,620 |
118,528 |
14.02 |
1965 |
17,460 |
118,228 |
14.76 |
1966 |
20,694 |
134,532 |
15.38 |
1967 |
21,725 |
157,464 |
13.79 |
1968 |
23,854 |
178,134 |
13.39 |
1969 |
27,298 |
183,640 |
14.86 |
1970 |
30,270 |
195,649 |
15.47 |
1971 |
35,872 |
210,172 |
17.06 |
1972 |
40,157 |
230,681 |
17.40 |
1973 |
49,090 |
245,707 |
19.97 |
1974 |
55,867 |
269,359 |
20.74 |
1975 |
64,658 |
332,332 |
19.45 |
1976 |
73,899 |
371,792 |
19.87 |
TQ [3] |
19,763 |
95,975 |
20.59 |
1977 |
85,061 |
409,218 |
20.78 |
1978 |
93,861 |
458,746 |
20.46 |
1979 |
104,073 |
504,028 |
20.64 |
1980 |
118,547 |
590,941 |
20.06 |
1981 |
139,584 |
678,241 |
20.58 |
1982 |
155,964 |
745,743 |
20.91 |
1983 |
170,724 |
808,364 |
21.11 |
1984 |
178,223 |
851,853 |
20.92 |
1985 |
188,623 |
946,396 |
19.93 |
1986 |
198,757 |
990,430 |
20.06 |
1987 |
207,353 |
1,004,082 |
20.65 |
1988 |
219,341 |
1,064,455 |
20.60 |
1989 |
232,542 |
1,143,646 |
20.33 |
1990 |
248,623 |
1,253,165 |
19.83 |
1991 |
269,015 |
1,324,369 |
20.31 |
1992 |
287,585 |
1,381,655 |
20.81 |
1993 |
304,585 |
1,409,489 |
21.60 |
1994 |
319,565 |
1,461,877 |
21.85 |
1995 |
335,846 |
1,515,802 |
22.15 |
1996 |
349,671 |
1,560,535 |
22.40 |
1997 |
365,251 |
1,601,250 |
22.81 |
1998 |
379,215 |
1,652,585 |
22.94 |
1999 |
390,037 |
1,701,891 |
22.91 |
2000 |
409,423 |
1,788,773 |
22.88 |
2001 |
432,958 |
1,863,895 |
23.22 |
2002 |
456,413 |
2,010,975 |
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Footnotes:
[1] Source: Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2004,
Historical Tables. U.S. Government Printing Office, 2003. All
figures are from Table 3.1- Outlays By Superfunction and Function:
1940-2008, pgs. 44-51. Figures do not include expenditures for
Medicare.
[2] Social Security tax collections and benefit payments actually
started in 1937. From 1937 through 1939 there were no monthly
Social Security benefits paid, but there were relatively small
one-time lump-sum payouts. The dollar amounts of Social Security
payments were so small during these years that in all three years
the percentage would be lower than the lowest value shown in this
table.
[3] In 1976 the federal government changed the period of its
fiscal year. To accommodate the shift in time frames the Bureau
of the Budget created a fictional Transition Quarter in which
expenditures were assigned to neither 1976 or 1977 but to this
imaginary quarter. This is therefore how this period is depicted
in federal budget documents and to maintain consistency with the
standard presentation we have followed this practice. Since we
are looking at percentages, the diminuative size of this one measuring
period does not matter for purposes of our analysis. |
Larry DeWitt
SSA Historian's Office
June 2003 |
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