Ask retirees how dependent they are on Social Security and you’ll get one number. Check tax and benefit records and you’ll get another.
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U.S. Census researchers have found that about 14% of Americans 65 and older rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.
Surveys show far more Americans expecting to live on Social Security alone in retirement.
About nine in 10 American retirees get a Social Security check each month. How many of them live on it? That’s a harder question, and the answers swing wildly depending on who’s measuring.
A widely cited Senior Citizens League survey finds that 39% of retirees—about 22 million people—say Social Security provides “the entirety” of their income. The best federal estimate, built by Census Bureau researchers who matched survey responses to IRS tax records, puts the figure at just under 14%.
That gap could become central as Congress debates changes to Social Security as its trust fund is set to run out by 2032.
Whether you’re planning for your retirement or helping a parent through theirs, knowing which picture is closer to reality can change how much to save, when to claim benefits, and how to think about the other income streams you’ll need.
Americans view Social Security as central to their retirement. A 2025 Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies survey found 91% of retirees count Social Security as a source of income, and 53% name it their primary source.
An Investopedia tabulation of the March 2025 Current Population Survey (CPS)— the federal government’s most recent income survey, covering 2024—shows 24% of Americans 65 and older told federal surveyors they received 90% or more of their household income from Social Security. That figure matches the historical pattern: the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Income of the Population 55 or Older report, last published in 2016, showed about one in four older adults at the 90% threshold.
But researchers have long known that income surveys, whether from outside groups or the Census Bureau, overcount older Americans’ reliance on Social Security. The CPS was redesigned in 2014 to fix the problem, but it persisted—one reason the Social Security Administration stopped publishing its annual income report in 2016. When Census Bureau researchers linked CPS respondents to their actual IRS tax filings and Social Security Administration benefit records, they found that retirees failed to report 401(k) and IRA withdrawals 46% of the time.
A 2024 peer-reviewed paper by Census Bureau researchers used the same method of matching survey responses to tax and benefit records to produce these corrected figures:
The underlying tax data is from 2015—linking Census records to IRS and SSA files took years of interagency review. But two things suggest the corrected picture hasn’t changed much. The Census Bureau’s more recent National Experimental Wellbeing Statistics, which link survey data to federal records through 2021, show a similar gap between what older Americans report and what their records say. In addition, the raw survey measure of older adults who say they rely 90% or more on Social Security has barely moved from then: 25% in 2015, 24% in 2024, according to Investopedia‘s analysis of CPS data.
Together, these points suggest that an up-to-date tax-linked correction to Census surveys wouldn’t land far from the same 14% figure.
Retirees have more resources than surveys tend to capture. Transamerica’s data show 45% of retirees draw income from 401(k)s, 403(b)s, or IRAs; 49% have other savings and investments; 40% still receive a pension; and 15% tap home equity. Most retirees have more than one stream. When retirees underreport those streams, Social Security looms larger than it is.
The data also reveals demographic splits.
A 2025 Congressional Research Service analysis shows reliance on Social Security doubling from ages 65 to 69 to those 80 and older. In every age group, women rely far more on Social Security than men do.
Read the original article on Investopedia
