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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, June 30, 2008

Type of benefit			Number of beneficiaries [In thousands]	Monthly rate [In millions]	Average monthly amount
Total			50,417	$50,020	a
	Retired workers and their family members, total		34,883	36,225	a
		Retired workers	31,965	34,666	$1,084
		Spouses	2,408	1,284	533
		Children	509	275	541
	Survivors of deceased workers, total		6,470	5,991	a
		Children	1,899	1,343	707
		Widowed mothers and fathers with child beneficiaries in their care	161	126	779
		Aged widow(er)s, and aged parents	4,185	4,377	1,046
		Disabled widow(er)s	226	146	646
	Disabled workers and their family members, total		9,065	7,804	a
		Disabled workers	7,229	7,260	1,004
		Spouses	152	40	267
		Children	1,683	504	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, June 30, 2008

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		$8,268	$7,941
Children (OASDI)		4,091	2,122
	Student children	152	95
	Disabled children aged 18 and over	813	535
	Children under age 18	3,126	1,492
Survivor children and widowed mothers and fathers		2,060	1,468
Beneficiaries aged 62 and over (OASDI)		39,904	41,742
Beneficiaries aged 65 and over (OASDI)		35,522	37,505

 

C. Average Monthly Family Benefits in Current-Payment Status, June 30, 2008

Selected family a group	Number of families [In thousands]	Average family benefit	Average number of beneficiaries per family
Retired worker alone	29,240	$1,072	1.000
Retired worker and spouse, aged 62 and over	2,295	1,767	2.000
Disabled worker, spouse under full retirement age, and 1 or more children	75	1,686	3.950
Widowed parent and 2 children	51	2,219	3.000
Children of deceased workerb	1,135	941	1.342
Aged widow(er) alone	4,010	1,046	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 164 million people will work in OASDI-covered employment in 2008.

   About 94 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 June 30, 2008, about 90 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 2007	Fiscal year 2007	Cumulative 1937 through end of —
					Calendar year 2007	Fiscal year 2007
Income			$784.9	$771.8	$12,253.4	$12,046.7
	Contributions		656.1	647.4	10,898.3	10,752.1
	Other		128.8	124.4	1,355.1	1,294.6
Expenditures			594.5	585.3	10,014.9	9,866.1
	Benefit payments		584.9	575.8	9,806.8	9,659.4
		OASI	489.1	481.8	8,532.0	8,409.7
		DI	95.9	94.0	1,274.7	1,249.6
	Other		9.6	9.5	208.2	206.8
Assets, end of period			2,238.5	2,180.6	2,238.5	2,180.6
Note: Totals may not equal the sums of rounded components.

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