The growth and aging of the population of the United States, has led experts in finance to express their concern about the impact on the Social Security system, which the number of applicants is also increasing, the population of the United States, has increased by approximately 103 million in the last fifty years.
And data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) indicate that the proportion of applicants for Social Security has grown by more than seven percent in this time.
More and More Retirees Claiming Benefits
The SSA said, it expects there will be 89.9 million beneficiaries in the year 2053, compared to 67 million beneficiaries at the end of the year 2023.
“Those 22.8 million (increase) represent to be more specific that the baby boomer generation is already aging, beyond the ages at which they retire,” benefits are normally applied for (62-70) and the consequent lower birth rates after 1964,” an SSA spokesman said.
If we compare with a projected U.S. population of 393 million, the ratio of beneficiaries to population would be 22.9 percent, up from 15.7 percent at the end of the previous year.
The Population Surge: Social Security’s Crisis in the Making
And the increasing number of applicants, particularly those who are out of work and retired, means that there are fewer workers paying taxes that go into the coffers that fund the SSA.
Chris Orestis, president of Retirement Genius, commented“ “Historically it has taken about two workers to support a retiree on Social Security, but the ratio has been altered and the fiscal soundness of the program is being undermined.”
By 2053, Social Security is expected to serve nearly 90 million beneficiaries, a challenge that requires urgent fiscal and policy responses.
“A large number of retirees is not a problem in itself; the problem is the ratio of retirees to new workers,” said Ron Hetrick, senior labor economist at market analysis firm Lightcast. “That’s because when people retire, their demand for goods and services remains high, but now we will have significantly fewer people to provide those goods and services in the future.”
The number of applicants who retired increased from 16.5 million in the year 1970 to 52.7 million in the year 2023, an increase from 8.2 percent to 15.7 percent of the population.
Aging America: How Social Security is Bracing for the Future
The U.S. Census Bureau has also predicted that by the year 2030, one in five Americans will be over the age of 65, says that, beyond the year 2030, “the population of the United States is projected to gradually increase, age considerably, and become more racially and ethnically diverse.” In connection with the increase in immigration.
The increase in people making the application that comes naturally with the aging population comes at a time when the SSA is already facing a complicated financial situation. In just over a decade, the expected date for the program’s Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) fund to run out has now been pushed back to 2035, based on the combined reserves of the retirement and disability benefits trusts, one year later than previously projected.
