Average Retirement Age Statistics (2026)

The average retirement age in the US is 62, going by when retirees say they stopped working. In Gallup's April 2026 poll, retirees reported retiring at a mean age of 61 and a median of 62. The EBRI 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey found the same median of 62 among retirees.

People who have not yet retired expect to work longer. Gallup's non-retirees expect to retire at 66 on average, and EBRI's workers at a median of 65. The five-year difference between when people plan to retire and when retirees actually did has shown up in Gallup's polling for two decades.

Different sources mean different things by "average retirement age", and the numbers are not interchangeable. The first is a survey answer: Gallup, EBRI and Transamerica ask retirees what age they retired, which gives 61 to 63.

The second is the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College's measure, the age at which the labor force participation rate drops below 50%, which gives 64.8 for men and 63.3 for women in 2025. The third is the OECD's average age of leaving the labor force, 67.3 for US men and 66.7 for US women in 2024. The fourth is the age people start Social Security, which averaged 65.2 for new retired-worker awards in 2024.

Survey answers include people who left work early through layoffs, disability or caregiving and now describe themselves as retired. Labor-force measures count everyone still working, including the minority who keep going into their 70s, so they come out higher.

Gallup asks non-retirees "At what age do you expect to retire?" and retirees "At what age did you retire?". In 2026 the answers were 66 and 61, and Gallup notes non-retirees expect to retire five years later than current retirees did (Gallup). The groups are sampled separately, so the gap compares two populations, not the same people's plans and outcomes.

The distributions show where the gap comes from. Only 30% of non-retirees in 2026 expected to retire before 65 (9% under 55, 6% at 55 to 59 and 15% at 60 to 64), while 61% of retirees had done so (14% under 55, 16% at 55 to 59 and 31% at 60 to 64), according to Gallup's full results. Thirty-nine percent of non-retirees expect to retire after 65, against 22% of retirees who did.

Men's retirement age fell from the 1960s to the mid-1990s, and retirement ages have risen on every measure since. Gallup's retirees reported a mean retirement age of 57 in 1991, 59 in 2002, 60 for most of the late 2000s and 61 or 62 every year since 2013 (see the chart below).

Expectations have moved further. Non-retirees expected to retire at 60 in 1995, 63 in 2002, 65 in 2010 and 66 or later in most years since 2011, peaking at 68 in 2025 before falling back to 66 in 2026. Gallup's 2022 analysis found the share of adults already retired had dropped in every age group between 2002-2007 and 2016-2022: from 19% to 11% at ages 55 to 59, 41% to 32% at 60 to 64, and 76% to 70% at 65 to 69 (Gallup).

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College puts the average retirement age at 64.8 for men and 63.3 for women in 2025, using Census Bureau survey data back to 1962. Men's average fell from 65.6 in 1962 to a low of 61.7 in 1994, then climbed back by about three years. Women's average rose from 52.5 in 1962 to 63.3, as far more women entered and stayed in paid work.

A 2022 CRR research brief found the average retirement age had risen by about three years from its low point, over a period when life expectancy at 65 for men rose about 3.7 years. The brief concluded that further increases in the average retirement age seem relatively unlikely (CRR Issue in Brief 22-11).

In the survey data the sex gap is small. Gallup's 2026 retirees report a mean of 61.2 for men and 61.0 for women, both with a median of 62, and Transamerica's middle-class retirees report medians of 63 for men and 62 for women.

Most retirees stop working before 65. EBRI reports that three in five retirees retired before 65, and 29% did so before 60. Among workers, only 12% plan to retire before 60 and 39% expect to retire at 70 or later or never, against 10% of retirees who retired at 70 or older (EBRI 2026). Sixteen percent of workers say they will never retire, a significant increase from 2025.

Transamerica's survey of middle-income households (household income $50,000 to $199,999) found a median retirement age of 63, with 57% retiring before 65, 12% at 65, 16% at 66 to 69 and 10% at 70 or older (Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, an industry survey). Gallup's long trend points the same way: 67% of retirees in 2015 had retired before 65, against about three in four in the early 1990s (Gallup).

Forty-six percent of retirees in EBRI's 2026 survey retired earlier than they had planned, up from 40% in 2025; 48% retired about when planned and 6% later (EBRI Fact Sheet). Among those who left early, 41% cited a health problem or disability, up from 31% in 2025, and 35% cited changes at their company such as downsizing or closure. Sixteen percent left to care for a spouse or family member.

Some early retirements are by choice: 36% said they could afford to retire earlier, down from 44% a year before. But 76% of early retirees gave at least one reason outside their control, up from 68% in 2025.

Two other surveys report similar findings. Transamerica found 48% of middle-income retirees retired sooner than planned, most often for employment-related reasons (53%) or their own health (33%). The Federal Reserve's Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, published in May 2026, found health, caregiving or a lack of work affected the timing for 46% of retirees, rising to 53% of those with a high school education or less, against 37% of those with a bachelor's degree (Federal Reserve SHED).

Social Security's full retirement age, the age at which a worker receives an unreduced benefit, is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later (SSA). It was 65 for people born in 1937 or earlier and rose in two-month steps: 66 for those born 1943 to 1954, then two months a year again until reaching 67 for the 1960 cohort.

Anyone born in 1960 turned 66 in 2026, so 2027 is the first year the full retirement age of 67 applies in practice. People born on January 1 use the previous year's full retirement age.

Retirement benefits can start as early as 62, but they are permanently reduced. For someone born in 1960 or later, claiming at 62 is 60 months early and cuts the benefit by 30%, so a $1,000 full benefit becomes $700. A spouse's benefit taken at 62 is cut by 35%. For those born 1943 to 1954, with a full retirement age of 66, the reduction at 62 was 25%.

Waiting has the opposite effect. For anyone born in 1943 or later, each year benefits are delayed past full retirement age adds 8% in delayed retirement credits, and the increase stops at 70. For a 1960 birth cohort, that means the monthly benefit at 70 is 124% of the full benefit, against 70% at 62 (a Walnut calculation from SSA's percentages).

Americans are starting Social Security later. In 2024 the average age of new retired-worker awards was 65.2 for both men and women, up from 63.6 in 2004 (SSA Annual Statistical Supplement 2025, Table 6.B5). Only 22.0% of men and 23.3% of women started at 62, less than half the shares of 2004 (50.3% and 55.0%).

At the other end, 8.4% of men and 9.1% of women waited until 70 to 74, against 0.5% and 1.6% in 2004. About 27% of men's awards and 25% of women's came at full retirement age, though those shares include automatic conversions from disability benefits, so they overstate how many people chose that age. SSA made about 3.7 million retired-worker awards in 2024: 1,874,000 to men and 1,839,000 to women.

In Northwestern Mutual's 2026 Planning & Progress Study, an industry survey, 30% of the non-retirees asked said they would claim as soon as possible, 43% at full retirement age and 27% as late as possible (Northwestern Mutual).

About 19.1% of Americans 65 and older were in the labor force in 2025, up from 15.1% in 2005 (BLS, Current Population Survey). That was 11.8 million people working or looking for work out of a 65-and-older population of 61.7 million. A third of people aged 65 to 69 (33.3%) were in the labor force, along with 18.8% of those 70 to 74 and 8.5% of those 75 and older.

Men 65 and older participate at 23.1% and women at 15.7%. BLS projects participation will keep rising at older ages, to 29.1% for ages 65 to 74 and 10.1% for 75 and older by 2035, even as overall participation falls from 62.4% to 61.1% (BLS Employment Projections).

Older workers are a growing share of employment. Census Bureau research found workers 55 and older made up 24% of the US workforce in 2022, up from 10% in 1994 (Census Bureau).

Seventy-four percent of workers in EBRI's 2026 survey plan to work for pay in retirement, but only 31% of retirees actually do (EBRI). The gap has held for decades: in 1999, 73% of workers planned to work in retirement and 27% of retirees did. Three in four retirees stopped working entirely, while almost half of workers expect a gradual transition.

Working retirees mostly say they work to stay active and involved (91%) or because they enjoy it (85%). Forty-one percent said they needed the money to make ends meet, and 17% to keep health insurance or other benefits.

Gallup found 58% of employed adults expect to keep working part time once they reach retirement age, 36% because they want to and 21% because they will have to. The Fed's SHED found that 16% of retirees had done paid work in the previous month (Federal Reserve).

Younger adults expect to retire sooner. In Gallup's 2026 poll, non-retirees aged 18 to 34 expected to retire at 63.5 on average, those 35 to 54 at 66.9, and those 55 and older at 67.2 (Gallup). Nearly half of non-retirees 55 and older (49%) expect to retire after 65, against 32% of those under 35. Non-retirees with household incomes under $50,000 expected to retire at 65.2.

Northwestern Mutual's 2026 study puts the anticipated retirement age of working non-retirees at 65.2, with 65% planning to retire at 65 or later and 17% at 75 or later. Fifteen percent of adults said financial concerns had caused them to delay retirement (Northwestern Mutual, an industry survey).

Americans work longer than people in most developed countries. The OECD's Pensions at a Glance 2025 estimates the average age of leaving the labor force in 2024 at 67.3 for US men and 66.7 for US women, against OECD averages of 64.7 and 63.6. The US normal retirement age in the OECD's comparison is 66 and 8 months.

Men left the labor force after 67 on average only in Chile, Colombia, Iceland, Israel, Korea, Mexico and the US. In France men left at 61.9, in the UK at 63.8 and in Germany at 64.2, and in Luxembourg at 60.1. Across the OECD the average exit age bottomed out around 2000, at 62.0 for men and 59.7 for women, and has risen since by 2.7 and 3.9 years.

The age people retire is tied to how they fund the years after. In Gallup's 2026 poll, 82% of retirees said they had enough money to live comfortably, while only 45% of non-retirees expected to, a 37-point gap. Sixty-nine percent of non-retirees were worried about having enough money in retirement, against 39% of retirees (Gallup).

Social Security is a major income source for 62% of retirees, tying a record high in Gallup's trend, followed by a work pension (37%) and a 401(k) or IRA (27%). Only 3% of retirees count part-time work as a major source, while 21% of non-retirees expect it to be one.

Planned retirements are long. Transamerica's middle-income workers planned on a median of 25 years in retirement and a life expectancy of 88. In the Fed's SHED, 35% of non-retirees thought their retirement savings were on track (Federal Reserve).

The data show a consistent pattern: workers plan to retire at 65 to 66, retirees actually stopped at about 62, and close to half stop earlier than they planned, often for health or job reasons they did not choose. Retiring at 62 also means a Social Security benefit 30% below the full amount for anyone born in 1960 or later.

For people saving for retirement in a brokerage account or IRA, Walnut, an AI investing app, can read a connected account and show how those holdings are doing. The statistics on this page describe when Americans retire; they are not a recommendation on when anyone should retire or claim benefits.