How many retirees in the US?

97guns

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Out of curiosity I tried to find a number but couldn’t, the only number they show is the % of people over 65, is that info out there?
 
It's easier to count the people based on things like age as it is easy to define. How do you define retired? There are people who have never pulled a pay check (say a house flipper), or someone who got laid off and hasn't found a job or someone who "retired" and picked up a part time job, There are people on SS who are still working, are they retired?

Just on this board you have 30-somethings that have FIRED. What is the correct metric for defining retired?
 
I guess I would find the folks who are employed, those who are unemployed, those who are too young to have a job, and whatever is left would be retirees.

But why do you want to know?
 
According to the most recent SSA Annual Performance Report:

"In fiscal year (FY) 2017, we paid approximately $793 billion in OASI benefits to an average of almost 51 million beneficiaries a month, including 88 percent of the population aged 65 and over. "

So the number of retirees likely is more than 50 million.

I'm assuming some who receive OASI benefits aren't retired, and some who are retired don't yet receive OASI.
 
According to the most recent SSA Annual Performance Report:

"In fiscal year (FY) 2017, we paid approximately $793 billion in OASI benefits to an average of almost 51 million beneficiaries a month, including 88 percent of the population aged 65 and over. "

So the number of retirees likely is more than 49,999,998 million.

I'm assuming some who receive OASI benefits aren't retired, and some who are retired don't yet receive OASI.

FIFY, My 3 and 12 year old sons also collect.
 
Out of curiosity I tried to find a number but couldn’t, the only number they show is the % of people over 65, is that info out there?

I think the government definition of retired is based on number collecting social security. Otherwise how would they know? In our world now, Google or Facebook would have a better idea than the Gov.
 
You can google how many people are collecting social security but a portion are working and collecting social security. Some are in cash business and some are working at very low paying jobs but it is probably the best number.
 
You can google how many people are collecting social security but a portion are working and collecting social security. Some are in cash business and some are working at very low paying jobs but it is probably the best number.

You are not counting the retired people who have not started taking Social Security yet so perhaps the portion taking SS and still working gets cancelled out. Or not. Who knows?
 
You are not counting the retired people who have not started taking Social Security yet so perhaps the portion taking SS and still working gets cancelled out. Or not. Who knows?

And I'm sure there are people who are taking SS but are still working (not retired).

I usually say I'm non-employed.
 
It will be hard to find a non-fuzzy number due to the difficulty in defining terms. Retirement for me is different than retirement for my mom or dad. You might have to do a poll and find how many self-identify as retired vs. unemployed or disabled.
 
My CPA put unemployed for me on my tax form. I am retired, but since I am under 55, they just say unemployed? So, how many other people are not actively looking for a job, but are counted as such or something else that is inaccurate? How much does this skew the retirees result?

One way to find out how many retirees are in the country is to ask them on the census. Even if it was asked, I suspect this too is at risk of being misleading. Would people tell the truth? How would the government determine the results based on the answers? I'm not sure at this point if it is possible to get a good solid number on this.
 
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Actually, there are only 1875 (globally) that should count.....


Most users ever online was 1,875, 06-12-2017 at 08:48 PM. Early-Retirement home page :)
 
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