Understanding the Income of the Older Population

Evaluations of how well the U.S. retirement income system - including employment - based retirement plans, Social Security, and individual saving - is performing are often based on the economic status of the current older population (age 65 and older). This article presents some of the latest data available in this area. It analyzes the level of the older population's income and how this level has changed over time, as well as the different sources of the older population's income, how the relative importance of those sources has changed over time, and how the elderly's reliance on these sources varies across income levels. Finally, it discusses the implications of these data. The PDF for the above title, published in the April 2000 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another April 2000 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: "The Future of Private Retirement Plans."