The most popular age to claim Social Security is 66, with roughly 28 percent of men and 27 percent of women filing at what has traditionally been the full retirement age. Age 62, the earliest you can claim, comes in as a close second, drawing about 23 percent of men and 25 percent of women. Together, these two ages account for more than half of all new Social Security retirement claims. To put that in real numbers, of the approximately 2.7 million people who became new retired-worker beneficiaries in 2021, 29 percent claimed at 62 and 25 percent claimed at 66, according to data from the Social Security Administration. But these numbers have shifted dramatically over the past two decades.
The share of people claiming at 62 has dropped from roughly 60 percent in the mid-2000s to less than 30 percent by 2023, according to research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College published in May 2025. The average claiming age has risen from 63 to 65 during that same period. That trend matters because claiming age permanently determines your monthly benefit for the rest of your life, and the financial difference between filing at 62 and waiting until 70 can exceed thousands of dollars per month. This article breaks down the percentage of people claiming Social Security at every age from 62 to 75 and beyond, examines why claiming patterns have changed, explores the financial tradeoffs at each age, and looks at how economic conditions like recessions push people toward earlier claims. Whether you are approaching 62 and weighing an early filing or trying to decide if delaying to 70 is worth it, the data here should help you see where you fall relative to millions of other Americans making the same decision.
Table of Contents
- What Percentage of People Claim Social Security at Age 62, 66, and 70?
- Why the Share Claiming at 62 Has Dropped by Half Since 2005
- How Recessions and Job Loss Push People to Claim Social Security Early
- The Financial Tradeoff Between Claiming at 62, 67, and 70
- Why So Few People Wait Until 70 and When It Makes Sense
- Gender Differences in Social Security Claiming Patterns
- Where Social Security Claiming Trends Are Heading
- Conclusion
What Percentage of People Claim Social Security at Age 62, 66, and 70?
The 2022 claiming data, broken down by gender, reveals two clear peaks. Age 62 attracts 22.9 percent of men and 24.5 percent of women, making it the most popular early claiming age. The middle years see relatively low uptake: age 63 draws only 6.4 percent of men and 6.6 percent of women, while age 64 pulls in 6.7 percent and 7.3 percent respectively. Age 65, once the universal retirement age in most Americans’ minds, captures about 13.3 percent of men and 13.4 percent of women. Then claiming jumps sharply at age 66, where 28.4 percent of men and 26.5 percent of women file, making it the single most popular claiming age overall. The later ages tell an interesting story about patience and planning.
Ages 67 through 68 combined account for about 13.4 percent of men and 13.1 percent of women. Age 69 sees 13.8 percent of men and 12.2 percent of women. Only 8.4 percent of men and 9.3 percent of women wait until somewhere in the 70 to 74 range, and a vanishingly small 0.2 percent of both men and women hold off past age 75. Consider what this means practically: if you walk into any room of 100 recent Social Security claimants, roughly 23 of them filed at 62, about 28 filed at 66, and fewer than 9 waited until 70 or later. The 2021 SSA data paints a similar picture from a different angle. Of all new retired-worker beneficiaries that year, 57 percent claimed before age 66, 25 percent claimed right at 66, and only 18 percent were age 67 or older. The majority of Americans are still leaving money on the table by claiming before their full retirement age, though that majority has been shrinking steadily.
Why the Share Claiming at 62 Has Dropped by Half Since 2005
The decline in early claiming is one of the most significant shifts in American retirement behavior in a generation. In the mid-2000s, approximately 60 percent of new beneficiaries claimed at 62, the very first month they were eligible. By 2023, that figure had fallen below 30 percent. That is not a minor fluctuation. It represents millions of people making a fundamentally different calculation about when to start their benefits. The primary driver behind this shift is the gradual increase in the full retirement age from 65 to 67, which Congress enacted in 1983 but which phased in over decades. As the full retirement age rose, the penalty for claiming at 62 became steeper.
Someone born in 1937 or earlier who claimed at 62 faced only a 20 percent reduction from their full benefit. Someone born in 1960 or later who claims at 62 now faces a 30 percent permanent reduction. That is a meaningful difference, and the data suggests americans have responded rationally to it. The trend toward later claiming accelerated noticeably after 2005, right as these steeper penalties began affecting larger cohorts of retirees. However, if you are in poor health, have limited savings, or have lost your job in your early sixties, the math changes. The standard advice to delay claiming assumes you will live long enough to recoup the foregone benefits, which typically requires surviving into your early eighties. For someone with a serious health condition diagnosed at 60, claiming at 62 may be the financially sound choice regardless of the reduction. The averages describe population trends, not individual prescriptions, and roughly one in four Americans still chooses to claim at the earliest possible age for reasons that are often perfectly rational.
How Recessions and Job Loss Push People to Claim Social Security Early
Economic downturns reliably spike early claiming. During the Great Recession, the share of men claiming at age 62 rose from 33.5 percent to 35.8 percent between 2007 and 2009. That increase represents tens of thousands of additional early claims driven not by preference but by necessity. When employers lay off workers in their late fifties and early sixties, and when those workers struggle to find new jobs, Social Security becomes a lifeline rather than a strategic decision. This pattern creates a troubling dynamic. The people most likely to claim early during a recession are often those who can least afford the permanent benefit reduction, because they have already depleted savings or taken on debt during their period of unemployment.
A worker who loses a $60,000-a-year job at 61 and claims Social Security at 62 might lock in a monthly benefit of $1,400 instead of the $2,000 they would have received at 67. Over a 20-year retirement, that $600 monthly difference amounts to $144,000 in lost income. Recessions, in this way, create a lasting penalty that follows affected workers for the rest of their lives. For anyone currently in their late fifties, this is worth thinking about before a downturn arrives. Building an emergency fund that could cover 12 to 18 months of expenses between ages 60 and 62 can be the difference between claiming Social Security on your own terms and claiming because you have no other option. Even a modest bridge fund changes the equation.
The Financial Tradeoff Between Claiming at 62, 67, and 70
For someone whose full retirement age is 67, which applies to anyone born in 1960 or later, the benefit differences across claiming ages are substantial and permanent. Claiming at 62 means accepting a 30 percent reduction in your monthly benefit for life. Claiming at 67, your full retirement age, gets you 100 percent of your calculated benefit. Waiting until 70 earns you a 24 percent increase over your full retirement age benefit, thanks to delayed retirement credits of 8 percent per year for each year you wait past 67. To make this concrete, consider a worker whose full benefit at 67 would be $2,000 per month. At 62, that same worker would receive $1,400 per month. At 70, they would receive $2,480 per month. The difference between the 62 and 70 claiming amounts is $1,080 per month, or $12,960 per year.
Over a 20-year retirement, the cumulative difference exceeds $259,000. That is not a rounding error. It is the difference between a comfortable retirement and a constrained one for many households. The tradeoff, of course, is that the person who claims at 62 collects payments for up to eight additional years before the age-70 claimant receives their first check. The breakeven point, where the higher monthly payments from delaying overtake the cumulative total from claiming early, typically falls somewhere around age 80 to 82 depending on discount rates and assumptions. If you expect to live well past 82, delaying generally wins. If you have reason to believe you will not reach that age, claiming earlier captures more total value. Neither choice is universally right, which is precisely why claiming patterns are distributed across the full age range rather than clustered at a single age.
Why So Few People Wait Until 70 and When It Makes Sense
Despite the clear financial advantage of delayed claiming for those who live into their eighties, fewer than 10 percent of Americans wait until 70 or later. The combined data for ages 70 to 74 shows only 8.4 percent of men and 9.3 percent of women in that range. The reasons are both practical and psychological. Many people simply cannot afford to wait. Without a paycheck or sufficient savings, going eight years without Social Security income is not feasible. Others face the behavioral pull of a certain benefit today versus a larger but uncertain benefit tomorrow. There is also a widespread and understandable fear that Social Security benefits could be cut in the future, making delay feel risky even when the math favors it.
The cases where waiting until 70 makes the strongest sense tend to share a few characteristics. The person is in good health with a family history of longevity. They have other income sources, whether from a pension, retirement savings, part-time work, or a spouse’s Social Security benefit, that can cover expenses during the delay period. And they are the higher earner in a married couple, because the surviving spouse will inherit the higher benefit amount. For a married couple where one spouse earned significantly more, delaying the higher earner’s claim to 70 can be one of the most valuable financial moves available, effectively purchasing a larger survivor benefit that could last decades. However, waiting until 70 is not a magic formula. If you are single, in declining health, and have limited savings, the risk of dying before you break even on the delayed payments is real. The 0.2 percent of people who claim after 75 are statistical outliers, and most financial planners would not recommend waiting that long under any circumstances, since there is no additional benefit increase after 70.
Gender Differences in Social Security Claiming Patterns
The claiming data reveals modest but consistent gender differences. Women are slightly more likely to claim at 62, with 24.5 percent doing so compared to 22.9 percent of men. Men are more likely to claim at 66, with 28.4 percent compared to 26.5 percent of women. At the other end, women are slightly more likely to claim in the 70 to 74 range, at 9.3 percent versus 8.4 percent for men.
These patterns likely reflect broader economic realities. Women are more likely to have interrupted careers due to caregiving, which can result in lower lifetime earnings and less retirement savings, pushing some toward earlier claims. At the same time, women have longer average life expectancies, which makes delaying beneficial for those who can afford to wait. A 62-year-old woman today can expect to live to roughly 86 on average, well past the breakeven point for delayed claiming. For women who have the financial flexibility to wait, the longevity advantage makes delay particularly valuable.
Where Social Security Claiming Trends Are Heading
The long-term trajectory is clear: Americans are claiming later, and that trend shows no sign of reversing. The average claiming age has risen from 63 to 65 over recent decades, and as financial literacy around Social Security improves and more workers have access to 401(k) and IRA savings that can bridge the gap, further increases seem likely. A larger share of both men and women now claim at ages 67 and older compared to earlier cohorts, and the percentage claiming at 62 continues to decline from its mid-2000s peak. The wild card is policy uncertainty.
Ongoing debates about Social Security’s long-term solvency, including proposals to raise the full retirement age again or to modify benefit calculations, could shift behavior in either direction. If workers believe future benefits will be cut, some may accelerate their claims to lock in current benefit levels. If Congress shores up the trust fund with revenue increases, confidence in the system could encourage more people to delay. What the data makes clear is that Americans are not passive recipients of Social Security. They respond to incentive changes, economic conditions, and their own financial circumstances in measurable and sometimes surprising ways.
Conclusion
The data on Social Security claiming ages tells a story of gradual but meaningful change. While 62 and 66 remain the two most popular claiming ages, attracting roughly half of all new beneficiaries between them, the era of most people claiming at the earliest possible age is over. The share filing at 62 has been cut in half since the mid-2000s, the average claiming age has risen from 63 to 65, and a growing minority of Americans are waiting until 70 to maximize their lifetime benefits. These shifts are driven by real financial incentives, particularly the steeper penalties now associated with early claiming under a full retirement age of 67.
Your own claiming decision should start with the data but ultimately reflect your individual circumstances. Consider your health, your savings, your spouse’s situation, your other income sources, and your tolerance for risk. Use the SSA’s online calculators to model your specific benefit at different ages. And remember that while population averages are informative, you are making a decision for a sample size of one. The best claiming age is the one that fits your life, not the one that is most popular.