Why Social Security funds could run out in the next decade

 USA Facts - The Social Security system brought in more money than it paid out every year from 1982 to 2020. But since then, it’s run on a deficit. The Social Security Administration (SSA) projects that the trust funds supporting the program could be depleted by 2034 unless Congress acts to change it....

• The number of Social Security recipients has grown by 266% since 1970. The SSA projects that nearly 69 million people will receive monthly benefits this year. Nearly 90% of people 65 and older were in the program at the end of 2024.  

How Social Security works   US workers pay into the trust funds through payroll taxes and employers match these contributions. The SSA estimates that workers contributed $1.3 trillion to the trust funds in 2024. These payroll taxes go into the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance trust funds, which fund Social Security. The funds were worth a combined $2.7 trillion at the end of 2024.  The number of Social Security recipients has grown by 266% since 1970. The SSA projects that nearly 69 million people will receive monthly benefits this year. Nearly 90% of people 65 and older were in the program at the end of 2024.     The trust funds supporting Social Security have run on a deficit since 2021. In 2024, they took in $1.42 trillion and spent $1.48 trillion, depleting the funds by a record $67 billion. Since reaching their peak in 2020, the overall value of the trust funds has decreased by $187 billion, or 6.4%.  A record number 4.3 million babies were born in 1957.  People born that year turned 65 in 2022. Since then, the share of the population that’s 65 and older nearly doubled, from 9.0% to 17.2%. Around 1960, 65-year-olds were expected to live to the age of 79. In 2022, they were expected to live to 84.   The SSA expects the number of Americans 65 and older to grow by 26% in the next 12 years, from about 61 million in 2023 to about 77 million in 2035. Much more