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Sources of Income for Older Persons in 2003
By Ke Bin Wu, AARP Public Policy Institute
November 2005
This AARP Public Policy Institute Data Digest analyzes income sources for persons age 65 and older in 2003 and the distribution of each income source by gender, race and personal income level.
· Social Security is the most important income source for older persons; nearly 41 percent of their aggregate personal income was from Social Security payments.
· Those with low incomes were more likely than middle and high income older persons to depend on Social Security. In 2003, more than 85 percent of income for those with personal income under $10,000 came from Social Security payments compared with 10.3 percent for those with personal income of $75,000 and above.
· The share of Social Security income declined as personal income increased while the shares of earnings, pension and asset income tended to increase as personal income increased. In 2003, only 1.7 percent of total income came from earnings for persons in the lowest income quintile, compared with 34.6 percent for persons in the highest personal income quintile.
· Overall, those with low personal income depend heavily on Social Security income supplemented by income from savings and public welfare assistance such as Supplemental Security Income. For middle income persons, Social Security income is followed in importance by pensions and assets. Older persons with high income rely on earnings, followed by pensions, Social Security, and assets for most of their personal income.
The data for these analyses are from the U.S. Bureau of the Census's March 2004 Current Population Survey. (6 pages)
Pub ID: DD125
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the full report.
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