Income of the Retired Population

The performance of the U.S. retirement income system - including employment-based retirement plans, Social Security, individual saving, and post-retirement employment - can in part be assessed by examining the income of current retirees. This paper reviews the latest available data from the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS) on the retired population's income, how it has changed over time, and how retirees' reliance on particular sources of income varies across income levels. The PDF for the above title, published in the June 2001 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the full text of another June 2001 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: "Characteristics of Individual Retirement Account Owners."