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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, 2009

Type of benefit			Number of beneficiaries [In thousands]	Monthly rate [In millions]	Average monthly amount
Total			51,859	$54,932	a
	Retired workers and their family members, total		35,942	39,933	a
		Retired workers	33,027	38,271	$1,159
		Spouses	2,358	1,347	571
		Children	557	316	568
	Survivors of deceased workers, total		6,442	6,340	a
		Children	1,935	1,445	747
		Widowed mothers and fathers with child beneficiaries in their care	158	132	834
		Aged widow(er)s, and aged parents	4,118	4,606	1,118
		Disabled widow(er)s	231	158	683
	Disabled workers and their family members, total		9,475	8,658	a
		Disabled workers	7,593	8,065	1,062
		Spouses	157	45	285
		Children	1,725	548	318
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, 2009

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		8,733	$8,836
Children (OASDI)		4,217	2,309
	Student children	166	109
	Disabled children aged 18 and over	908	614
	Children under age 18	3,143	1,587
Survivor children and widowed mothers and fathers		2,093	1,576
Beneficiaries aged 62 and over (OASDI)		41,043	45,952
Beneficiaries aged 65 and over (OASDI)		36,239	40,973

 

C. Average Monthly Family Benefits in
Current-Payment Status, June 30, 2009

Selected family a group	Number of families [In thousands]	Average family benefit	Average number of beneficiaries per family
Retired worker alone	30,310	$1,146	1.000
Retired worker and spouse, aged 62 and over	2,243	1,884	2.000
Disabled worker, spouse under full retirement age, and 1 or more children	72	1,793	3.959
Widowed parent and 2 children	50	2,372	3.000
Children of deceased workerb	1,170	983	1.330
Aged widow(er) alone	3,936	1,118	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 159 million people will work in OASDI-covered employment in 2009.

   About 94 percent of workers in paid employment and self-employment are covered under the OASDI program.

2. Benefit receipt among the elderly
   As of June 30, 2009, 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 2008 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 2008 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 2008	Fiscal year 2008	Cumulative 1937 through end of —
					Calendar year 2008	Fiscal year 2008
Income			$805.3	$802.7	$13,058.7	$12,849.4
	Contributions		672.1	671.2	11,570.4	11,423.3
	Other		133.2	131.5	1,488.3	1,426.1
Expenditures			625.1	617.0	10,640.1	10,483.1
	Benefit payments		615.3	607.2	10,422.1	10,266.6
		OASI	509.3	503.0	9,041.4	8,912.7
		DI	106.0	104.2	1,380.7	1,353.9
	Other		9.8	9.8	218.0	216.6
Assets, end of period			2,418.7	2,366.3	2,418.7	2,366.3
Note: Totals may not equal the sums of rounded components.

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