Full Retirement Age Chart 2026: Social Security at 62, 67 or 70

Full retirement age by birth year

The statute fixes full retirement age by the year you reach age 62 (42 U.S.C. 416(l)(1)), and the regulation restates it by birth date (20 CFR 404.409(a)). SSA’s own chart gives the same months and the same reductions, rounded: a $1,000 benefit becomes $750 at 62 for the 1943 to 1954 group and $700 for 1960 and later (SSA, Benefits Planner, “Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction”).

Source: 20 CFR 404.409(a) for the ages; the months and percentages are our arithmetic from 20 CFR 404.410(a) and 404.313(b). PIA is the primary insurance amount, the benefit you would get at full retirement age.

The date rule has two small traps. The regulation says “You reach a particular age on the day before your birthday,” so a person whose 62nd birthday is July 1 became 62 on June 30 (20 CFR 404.102). And for a claim before full retirement age, benefits start with the first month “throughout which you meet all requirements for entitlement” (20 CFR 404.311(a)(2)). SSA puts it plainly: “You must be at least 62 for the entire month to receive benefits,” and a person born on the 1st is treated as born in the previous month (SSA, Benefits Planner). That is why the table uses the 1/2 cut-off dates.

How the reduction and the credit are computed

Both adjustments are applied to the primary insurance amount, the figure that comes out of the earnings formula, and then rounded. The reduction is rounded up to the next higher 10 cents and subtracted. The regulation’s own example has a full retirement age of 65 years and 8 months, a primary insurance amount of $980.50 and 44 months of early entitlement: 36 months at 5/9 of 1% and 8 months at 5/12 of 1% give $228.78, “rounded to $228.80 (the next higher multiple of 10 cents)” and the monthly benefit is $751.70 (20 CFR 404.410(a); 42 U.S.C. 402(q)(1)). The delayed-credit increase is rounded the other way, to the next lower 10 cents (20 CFR 404.313(b)(1)), and the final monthly amount is cut to the next lower dollar (20 CFR 404.304(f)). Our table follows these rules, so the dollar figures differ by cents from a straight percentage.

The credit rate is the third number to know. For people born after January 1, 1943 it is 2/3 of 1% for each month, or 8% for each 12 months (20 CFR 404.313(b)(2); 42 U.S.C. 402(w)(6)(D); SSA, Benefits Planner, “Delayed Retirement Credits”). The credits run “beginning with the month you attain full retirement age” and stop with the month you reach 70 (20 CFR 404.313(a)). Waiting past 70 adds nothing.

The two speeds of the early reduction matter for the decision. The first 36 months cost 6.67% a year of the primary insurance amount (5/9 of 1% times 12), and months 37 to 60 cost 5% a year (5/12 of 1% times 12). A person claiming at 65 with a full retirement age of 67 gives up 24 months at the faster rate, which is 13.33%, and receives 86.67% (our arithmetic).

Month by month: what each claiming age pays

The next table uses a $4,000 primary insurance amount, a round number that sits well inside the range of a worker with a long career. Every other amount scales: multiply the percentage by your own figure from your Social Security statement. All of it assumes the same cost-of-living adjustments on every row, since the adjustments apply to the primary insurance amount from the year you become eligible, whether or not you have claimed (20 CFR 404.271(b)).

Source: our arithmetic from 20 CFR 404.410(a), 404.313(b) and 404.304(f), with a $4,000 primary insurance amount claimed in the month you reach each age. The data file lists all 97 months from 62 years 0 months to 70 years 0 months. Credits earned after you start are added the following January in real life (20 CFR 404.313(c)), so a claim at 68 starts a few dollars lower than this table and catches up; credits earned before you file are in the first check (404.313(c)(3)).

For the largest benefit SSA shows at each age for a maximum earner, see our maximum Social Security benefit page.

Which year of waiting pays most? Each extra year buys a different raise, because the early reduction has two speeds and the credit is flat. On the $4,000 example the raise for waiting one more year, divided by the benefit you give up, is 7.14% from 62 to 63, 6.67% from 63 to 64, 8.31% from 64 to 65, 7.70% from 65 to 66, 7.15% from 66 to 67, then 8.00%, 7.41% and 6.90% from 67 to 70 (our arithmetic). No single year stands out the way the headline 8% suggests; they are all in a narrow band between 6.7% and 8.3%.

Break-even age: three ways to count it

A break-even age is the age at which the total received from claiming later first equals or passes the total from claiming earlier. The first table adds up benefits without discounting, in constant dollars. Both streams grow with the same cost-of-living adjustments, so the ages are the same in nominal and in real terms; only discounting moves them.

Source: our arithmetic from 20 CFR 404.410(a), 404.313(b) and 404.304(f). Ages are counted from the exact month a person turns 62; the cumulative benefit is measured at the end of each month. The 0% column is the one most websites print.

The “real rate” is the return you could earn after inflation on the money you would otherwise spend to bridge the gap. At 0% a dollar of benefit received at 82 is worth the same as a dollar at 62. At 4% a dollar at 82 is worth 46 cents at 62 (our arithmetic), so waiting has to run much longer to pay. This is the whole disagreement between the “wait until 70” and “take it at 62” camps: they use different discount rates, not different benefit formulas.

Here is the same comparison as running totals in constant dollars, without any discounting, for the $4,000 example (our arithmetic):

What the 2024 life table says about those ages

Break-even ages hide the question of how likely you are to be there. NCHS published the United States life tables for 2024 on August 25, 2026 (National Vital Statistics Reports, Volume 75, Number 5). The table gives the number of survivors out of 100,000 births at each age, so the share of 62-year-olds who reach an older age is the ratio of the two counts. The table covers all residents, not only people with 35 years of covered earnings or six-figure savings, so read it as a reference point and not a forecast for you.

Source: NCHS, United States Life Tables, 2024, Tables 1, 2 and 3 (number surviving to age x); our arithmetic, interpolating between whole ages for the month-level figures.

Read the first two rows together. The 62 versus 67 trade catches up at an age that most people who reach 62 also reach: about seven out of ten are still alive then. For 67 versus 70 the catch-up age is 82 years 6 months, and for a man about 54 out of 100 are alive at that age.

Weighting the benefits by who is alive to receive them gives a single number for each claiming age: the expected present value at 62 of the benefit stream, using the 2024 survivors. On the $4,000 example, with a 2% real rate, the expected value is $579,730 for a claim at 62, $605,604 at 67 and $606,206 at 70 for the whole population; $548,491, $562,402 and $555,410 for men; $608,454, $645,289 and $652,798 for women (our arithmetic). The age that maximises the expected value depends on the rate and the sex:

Source: our arithmetic from the benefit amounts above and the NCHS 2024 survivors; single life, before tax, full retirement age 67, benefits paid from the claim month while alive. The gaps between neighbouring ages are small near the top: at 2% for everyone the 67, 68, 69 and 70 claims are within 1% of each other.

Two limits keep this from being an answer for you. It ignores the spouse: delayed credits raise the survivor’s benefit, because “we will compute benefits for your surviving spouse ... based on your regular primary insurance amount plus the amount of those delayed retirement credits” (20 CFR 404.313(e)(1)), which pushes the higher earner of a couple toward waiting. And it ignores health, which is the factor that matters most to your own odds.

The bridge: what waiting costs a person with property or a portfolio

The new reader here is not deciding between two sums of money. They are deciding whether to spend their own money for a few years in order to buy a larger inflation-adjusted check for life. Put in dollars for the $4,000 example (our arithmetic):

Waiting from 62 to 67 means giving up 60 monthly checks of $2,800, a total of $168,000 before cost-of-living adjustments, to receive $1,200 more every month for life (our arithmetic). That is a payout of 8.57% a year on the $168,000, without any allowance for the chance of dying before you collect. The last column is not a return, because the extra payments stop at death. To turn it into a return, find the interest rate at which the payments given up and the payments received are equal for a given age at death. Using the real (inflation-adjusted) flows:

Source: our arithmetic (internal rate of return of the monthly benefits given up and then gained, in constant dollars, full retirement age 67, $4,000 primary insurance amount). Because both streams carry the same cost-of-living adjustments, these are real returns.

The pattern is the point. Dying at 80 makes the 62-to-67 wait return about 1.2% a year; living to 90 makes it return 5.4% a year, and the benefit it buys is guaranteed for life by the program, adjusted for inflation, and, for a married higher earner, passed on to a surviving spouse. What you compare it with is the real return on the same money in your portfolio or your rental property after tax and after the risk of holding it. This site does not rank that choice; the table gives you the number to hold against your own.

Funding the bridge. A person taking $2,800 a month from a traditional IRA to cover the gap needs to withdraw $3,182 a month at a 12% rate, $3,590 at 22% and $3,684 at 24% to keep $2,800 after federal tax (our arithmetic; ordinary rates only). Roth money and basis in a taxable account cost less in tax. Net rental income is taxed after depreciation and has its own rules, so the same $2,800 may cost less to produce than an IRA withdrawal does. Our pages on Roth conversions with illiquid assets and on 72(t) payments and the Roth ladder for early retirees cover the penalty-free ways to take money before 59 and a half, and the ACA subsidy cliff page covers health-insurance subsidies, which depend on the income you create during the bridge years. For how much real estate typical households hold at these ages, see retirement wealth by age.

The tax on a bigger check

A larger benefit is not a larger spendable benefit. Up to 85% of Social Security is included in taxable income when provisional income passes the second threshold (IRC section 86). The exact inclusion depends on your other income, and our guide to how much Social Security is taxable with rental and K-1 income works through it line by line. As an upper bound, the next table assumes the 85% cap is reached (our arithmetic, $4,000 primary insurance amount, full retirement age 67):

Waiting also changes which years carry which income. Between 62 and the claim date, the benefit is not in your return, which can leave room for Roth conversions or gains harvesting at lower rates before the larger check and the required minimum distributions arrive. The same income can raise Medicare premiums in later years; see our IRMAA brackets page. If a surviving spouse ends up filing as single, the bigger check meets compressed brackets, covered in the widow’s tax penalty guide.

Rules that move the number

• You can ask for up to six months back. For an old-age claim filed after the first month you could have been entitled, benefits may begin up to 6 months before the month of application (20 CFR 404.621(a)(2)). SSA adds that it cannot pay retroactive benefits “for any month before you reached full retirement age” (SSA, Benefits Planner).
• Working before full retirement age can pause checks without a permanent cut. Months in which benefits are withheld under the earnings test are not counted in the reduction, and the benefit is adjusted when you reach full retirement age (20 CFR 404.412). The 2027 earnings limits are on our 2027 cost-of-living adjustment page.
• Cost-of-living adjustments run while you wait. The primary insurance amount of a person who becomes eligible after 1978 is increased “beginning with December of the year they become eligible” (20 CFR 404.271(b)), and eligibility starts at 62 (20 CFR 404.310). Waiting does not mean missing the adjustments.
• Delayed credits help a surviving spouse, not other family. The credits go into the surviving spouse’s benefit, but “we do not use your delayed retirement credits to increase the benefits of other family members” (20 CFR 404.313(e)(1) and (2)).
• Medicare does not wait. SSA tells people who delay retirement benefits to “apply for Medicare benefits within 3 months of your 65th birthday,” because waiting longer can cost more (SSA, Benefits Planner, “Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction”).

What a reader can do with this

• Find your birth-date row. Use the first table for your full retirement age, then your own primary insurance amount from your Social Security statement, and multiply by the percentage for each age you are considering.
• Compute your gap in months. The 62 versus 67 trade costs 60 monthly checks; multiply your own claim-at-62 amount by the months to see the total you would have to fund from other money.
• Choose a discount rate before you choose an age. The break-even table shows that the age moves from 78 years 8 months at a 0% real rate to 85 years at 4% for the same two options. Decide what your own money earns after inflation and tax, then read the matching column.
• Check the household, not the person. A married higher earner’s delayed credits stay with the spouse who outlives them. If one of you has a much smaller record, the older or higher earner’s age matters more than the average of two.
• Look at the tax years. Map the bridge years against your Roth conversion room and the income that sets your ACA subsidy and IRMAA, using the linked pages.
• Ask a planner to run your return. The 85% cap, Medicare premiums and the survivor’s tax position change with your income mix, and a planner can model them together.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on October 22, 2026: 20 CFR 404.102, 404.271, 404.304, 404.310, 404.311, 404.313, 404.409, 404.410, 404.412 and 404.621 (law.cornell.edu); 42 U.S.C. 402(q) and (w) and 416(l) (law.cornell.edu); SSA Benefits Planner pages “Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction” and “Delayed Retirement Credits” (ssa.gov, read through the Internet Archive); National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 75, Number 5, “United States Life Tables, 2024” (August 25, 2026), Tables 1 to 3. Benefit amounts at each age, break-even ages, the expected-value ages, the implied returns, the bridge costs and the tax figures are our arithmetic from the factors in those documents.