Social Security Retirement Age: Full Retirement Age by Birth Year

The social security retirement age is really three ages wearing one name. There is 62, the earliest you can claim; there is your full retirement age, the birth-year-specific point where the check reaches 100%; and there is 70, where the reward for waiting stops growing. The chart above is the Social Security Administration's own schedule, set by the Social Security Amendments of 1983 and now fully phased in: anyone born in 1960 or later has a full retirement age of 67, and the earlier cohorts step down through 66 and 10 months (born 1959) to 65 (born 1937 or earlier).

What full retirement age actually unlocks

Three things switch on at full retirement age. First, 100% of your primary insurance amount, the benefit your earnings record has built; claim earlier and the reduction is permanent, down to 70% at 62 for the born-1960-or-later cohort. Second, the earnings test ends. Before full retirement age, working while claiming costs you $1 of benefit per $2 earned above $24,480 (the 2026 limit), softening to $1 per $3 above $65,160 in the calendar year you reach full retirement age, and disappearing entirely from the month you reach it; withheld months are credited back into a recalculated benefit, so it is a deferral rather than a pure loss. Third, spousal benefits max out. A spouse's check is capped at 50% of the worker's primary insurance amount and only reaches that cap if the spouse waits until their own full retirement age; claimed at 62, it falls to as little as 32.5%.

What full retirement age does not control

Medicare. Eligibility starts at 65 whatever your full retirement age, and SSA advises applying within three months of your 65th birthday even if you are delaying your retirement benefit. Full retirement age also does not force anything: you do not have to stop working, and you do not have to claim the moment you reach it.

Claiming before or after full retirement age

The trade is symmetrical and permanent. For anyone born in 1960 or later, claiming at 62 pays 70% of the full benefit, while delayed retirement credits add 8% per year past 67 (two-thirds of 1% per month) until they stop at 70, where the check is 124%. On a $2,000 full benefit that is $1,400 a month versus $2,480, and the cumulative break-evens land at roughly 78 to 79 for delaying from 62 to 67 and 82 to 83 for delaying from 67 to 70. The full claiming-age arithmetic, including the spousal and survivor angles, is in our guide to Social Security at 62 vs 67 vs 70, and you can run your own numbers through the Social Security break-even calculator.

Is the Social Security retirement age changing?

Not under current law. The 1983 schedule is complete, and the last cohort below 67 (born 1959, full retirement age 66 and 10 months) is reaching it now. Proposals exist: the Republican Study Committee has floated raising the age to 69, and a Congressional Budget Office option scores a rise to 70 for workers born in 1981 or later, but both are proposals, not law. The 2026 Trustees Report projects the retirement trust fund's reserves deplete in the fourth quarter of 2032, after which payroll tax still covers 78% of scheduled benefits (83% on a combined basis with the disability fund, which lasts until 2034). What is law, what is merely proposed, and what depletion actually means are covered in Social Security retirement age changes: what is law and what is not.

To see how your savings compare with households at your stage, there is average retirement savings for married couples by age, and the drawdown side of the sum is covered in the 4% rule. The rest of our US coverage lives at /us/articles.