Over the last two decades, the average retirement age in the United States has climbed steadily, rising from roughly 57 in the early 1990s to approximately 62 in 2024. That shift reflects a fundamental change in how Americans approach the end of their working lives. People are staying on the job longer than previous generations did, and the reasons range from legislative changes to Social Security, to the disappearance of traditional pensions, to the simple reality that many workers cannot afford to stop earning income when they once expected to. A 60-year-old teacher in Ohio who planned to retire at 62 a decade ago might now be looking at 65 or 66 as a more realistic target, not because she wants to work longer, but because her financial picture demands it.
What makes this trend particularly revealing is the gap between intention and reality. Gallup polling data shows that the expected retirement age — what workers say they plan for — increased from 63 in 2002 to 66 in 2022. Yet the actual average retirement age remains around 62, creating a persistent four-year gap driven by health problems, layoffs, and caregiving obligations that force people out of the workforce earlier than planned. This article examines the forces behind these shifting retirement ages, including changes to Social Security’s full retirement age, gender differences in retirement timing, the growth of older workers in the labor force, and what all of it means for anyone trying to plan a realistic exit from work.
Table of Contents
- How Has the Average Retirement Age Changed Over the Past 20 Years?
- Social Security’s Full Retirement Age and Its Impact on When Americans Retire
- How Do Retirement Ages Differ Between Men and Women?
- Why Are Older Workers Staying in the Labor Force Longer?
- The Gap Between Planned and Actual Retirement — What Goes Wrong?
- How Does the U.S. Compare to Other Countries on Retirement Age?
- What Does the Future Hold for Retirement Age Trends?
- Conclusion
How Has the Average Retirement Age Changed Over the Past 20 Years?
The trajectory is clear and well-documented. In 1991, the average American retired at 57. By 2024, that figure had climbed to approximately 62, according to data tracked by U.S. News and The Motley Fool. That five-year increase did not happen overnight — it was a gradual upward drift, accelerating in the 2000s and 2010s as economic pressures mounted and policy changes took hold. For context, someone who entered the workforce in 1985 expecting to retire around 57 or 58 watched that target recede year after year.
The expected retirement age tells an even more dramatic story. Workers surveyed by Gallup in 2002 anticipated retiring at 63. By 2022, that expectation had shifted to 66 — a three-year jump in just two decades of survey data. This is significant because it signals a psychological shift. Americans no longer view their early 60s as the default retirement window. They are mentally preparing for longer careers, even if circumstances sometimes force an earlier exit. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has tracked this divergence closely, noting that the gap between expectation and reality has remained stubbornly consistent at about four years, suggesting that while attitudes are adjusting, the practical obstacles to working longer have not gone away.
Social Security’s Full Retirement Age and Its Impact on When Americans Retire
One of the most concrete policy drivers behind later retirement is the gradual increase in social Security’s full retirement age. Under a 1983 law signed by President Reagan, Congress raised the FRA from 65 to 67, phased in over 33 years for people born in 1938 and later. For anyone born between 1943 and 1954, the FRA was set at 66. It then increased in two-month increments for birth years 1955 through 1959. As of 2026, the FRA has finally reached 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later — the final step in that long phase-in. This matters because claiming Social Security before your FRA results in permanently reduced monthly benefits. Among roughly 2.7 million new retired-worker beneficiaries in 2021, 29 percent claimed at age 62 — the earliest eligible age — and 57 percent claimed before age 66, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Only 18 percent of new beneficiaries claimed at 67 or older, per the Bipartisan Policy Center. The implication is stark: most Americans are still claiming benefits before reaching full retirement age, accepting reduced payments that will follow them for life. However, the FRA increase does not affect everyone equally. If you are in a physically demanding occupation — construction, nursing, warehouse work — the difference between retiring at 62 and working until 67 is not just a matter of preference. It may be physically impossible. And if you claim early because your body gives out at 61, you face steeper benefit reductions than someone born in 1940 did, because the FRA has moved further from the early claiming age. The policy penalizes early retirement more heavily now than it did a generation ago, and that penalty falls hardest on workers who have the least control over when they stop working.
How Do Retirement Ages Differ Between Men and Women?
Gender gaps in retirement timing have narrowed considerably but have not disappeared. As of 2025, the average retirement age for men is 65 and for women is 63, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. That two-year gap reflects several intersecting factors: women are more likely to leave the workforce for caregiving responsibilities, they tend to earn less over their careers (resulting in lower retirement savings), and they are more likely to have gaps in their Social Security earnings history. The longer historical view reveals just how much has changed for women. In the 1960s, the average retirement age for women was about 55. By 2024, it had risen to 62.6, according to World Metrics — a jump of nearly eight years.
That increase tracks closely with women’s rising labor force participation rates in the late twentieth century. As more women built full careers, they naturally retired later. But recent data suggests the trend has plateaued. Women’s retirement age has stopped climbing, which may reflect the persistent caregiving burden that disproportionately falls on women. A 58-year-old woman who needs to leave work to care for an aging parent faces a retirement timing decision that has little to do with her financial readiness and everything to do with family obligation. Men’s retirement age has been more stable over the same period, drifting upward more modestly. The convergence between men’s and women’s retirement ages is a positive sign in terms of workforce equality, but the remaining gap underscores that retirement is not purely an economic decision — it is shaped by social roles and family structures that have proven resistant to change.
Why Are Older Workers Staying in the Labor Force Longer?
The growth of older workers in the American labor force has been one of the most significant demographic shifts of the past two decades. The workforce aged 65 and older has grown significantly faster than the overall labor market, according to the Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives. Bureau of Labor Statistics projections estimated that the labor force growth rate for workers aged 65 to 74 would exceed 50 percent between 2016 and 2026, and for those 75 and older, the growth rate would exceed 91 percent. Those are not small adjustments — they represent a structural change in who is working and for how long. A 2025 Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies survey found that 34 percent of workers plan to retire after age 65, and another 13 percent have no plans to retire at all. That second figure deserves attention.
Nearly one in seven workers is not planning for retirement as a defined life event — they expect to keep working indefinitely, whether by choice or necessity. The tradeoff is real: working longer provides more years of income and allows retirement savings to grow, but it also means fewer years of leisure and carries health risks for people in physically or mentally demanding jobs. A 68-year-old accountant who enjoys her work faces a very different calculus than a 68-year-old roofer whose knees are failing. The financial drivers are straightforward. Rising healthcare costs, persistent inflation, and concerns about income sustainability are pushing Americans to extend their careers, as documented in State Street Global Advisors’ 2025 Global Retirement Reality Report. The shift from defined-benefit pensions to 401(k)-style plans has transferred retirement risk from employers to individuals, making workers personally responsible for ensuring they do not outlive their savings. Paychex research on retirement trends confirms that this structural shift in employer-sponsored retirement benefits has been one of the most important contributors to later retirement across the board.
The Gap Between Planned and Actual Retirement — What Goes Wrong?
The four-year gap between expected retirement age (66) and actual retirement age (62) is one of the most important statistics in retirement planning, and one of the most frequently overlooked. Guardian Life data highlights that this gap is driven primarily by three factors: health issues, layoffs, and caregiving needs. None of these are things people plan for, which is precisely the problem. Health is the most common disruptor. A worker who plans to retire at 66 may develop a chronic condition at 60 that makes continued employment impossible.
Layoffs are the second major factor — older workers who lose their jobs often face age discrimination in the hiring process and may find that “retirement” is simply the label applied to an involuntary departure from the workforce. Caregiving needs, particularly for aging spouses or parents, can pull workers out of the labor force years before they planned to leave. The practical warning here is that anyone building a retirement plan around working until 66 or 67 should stress-test that plan against a scenario where they stop working at 62. If your financial plan falls apart when you retire four years early, it is not a robust plan. The gap between intention and reality is not a quirk of the data — it is a predictable pattern that has persisted for years, and planning around it is simply prudent.
How Does the U.S. Compare to Other Countries on Retirement Age?
The trend toward later retirement is not uniquely American. The OECD’s Pensions at a Glance 2025 report tracks retirement ages across member countries and documents a broad global pattern of rising retirement ages in response to increased life expectancy. Countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas have been raising statutory retirement ages, often facing significant political resistance in the process — as France’s recent pension reform protests demonstrated.
What distinguishes the United States is the degree to which retirement risk has been privatized. Many OECD countries still maintain robust public pension systems that provide a higher income replacement rate than Social Security does. An American retiree relying primarily on Social Security typically replaces about 40 percent of pre-retirement income, while retirees in countries like the Netherlands or Denmark may replace 70 percent or more through their public systems. This difference helps explain why Americans face more pressure to work longer and save more independently — the safety net is thinner.
What Does the Future Hold for Retirement Age Trends?
The forces that have pushed retirement ages higher over the past 20 years show no signs of reversing. Healthcare costs continue to rise, traditional pensions continue to disappear, and life expectancy — despite recent setbacks — remains significantly higher than when Social Security was designed in the 1930s. There is ongoing discussion in policy circles about raising the full retirement age beyond 67, though no legislation is currently pending. The statutory retirement age for men reached 67 in 2026, up from 66.83 in 2025, completing the phase-in that began over three decades ago.
The more likely near-term shift is behavioral rather than legislative. As the expectation of working into one’s mid-to-late 60s becomes normalized, employers and workers will need to adapt. Phased retirement programs, flexible scheduling for older workers, and retraining initiatives for workers in physically demanding jobs will become increasingly important. The retirement age of the future will likely not be a single date but a gradual transition — and planning for that reality starts years before you reach it.
Conclusion
The retirement landscape in the United States has undergone a quiet but profound transformation over the past two decades. The average retirement age has climbed from 57 to 62, the full retirement age for Social Security has reached 67, and a growing share of Americans either plan to work past 65 or have no plans to retire at all. Gender gaps have narrowed but persist, with women retiring on average two years earlier than men. And through all of this, a stubborn four-year gap between planned and actual retirement age serves as a reminder that life rarely cooperates with our financial spreadsheets.
For anyone planning their own retirement, the key takeaway is to build flexibility into your timeline. Assume you might retire earlier than you want to, and make sure your savings and Social Security claiming strategy can absorb that possibility. Stay informed about changes to the full retirement age and benefit calculations. And recognize that working longer is a legitimate strategy — but only if your health and employment situation actually allow it. The trend lines are useful for understanding where the country is headed, but your retirement will ultimately be shaped by your own circumstances, decisions, and preparation.