New Report Details Long History of Public Support for Social Security

Analysis Finds That Confidence in Social Security Grows with Age

National Institute on Retirement Security to Host Webinar on February 12 to Review Report Findings

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 27, 2025 – As Social Security approaches its 90^th anniversary, a new report from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) examines more than 40 years of public opinion polling on this program established in the wake of the Great Depression to protect older Americans and reduce poverty. The report finds that public support remains strong for Social Security, and Americans become more confident in Social Security as they age and approach retirement.

These findings are detailed in Social Security’s First 90 Years: A History of Bipartisan and Intergenerational Support, authored by Tyler Bond, NIRS research director, and Jacob Moore, NIRS research intern. Read the report. Register for the webinar.

“Social Security is immensely popular and an effective economic security program. However, it requires attention from lawmakers to shore up funding. Left unaddressed, exhaustion of the Social Security trust fund likely will mean a 20 percent benefit cut for current and future beneficiaries,” Bond said. “Millions of seniors depend on their Social Security income to meet their day-to-day living expenses, with many relying solely on Social Security for income in retirement. Such a substantial benefit cut would leave a large share of older Americans in a precarious financial situation, and we would expect to see sharp increases in elder poverty.”

“The policy debate about resolving Social Security’s financing gap is likely to intensify in the coming years as the trust fund exhaustion date approaches. This analysis indicates that solid majorities of Americans, regardless of political affiliation or educational attainment, think more should be spent on Social Security. This suggests that benefit cuts to address the financing gap would be deeply unpopular. Recent polling indicates that Americans want Congress and the new administration to take action now to address Social Security’s funding challenges. We hope this new research contributes to the Social Security policy debate because public views should be factored into policymaking,” Bond said.

The review of polling data covering more than forty years from a multitude of organizations revealed the following key findings:

• Confidence in Social Security increases with age. The results of this analysis indicate that being born one year later, i.e., being one year younger, is associated with less confidence in receiving Social Security benefits in the future.
• Older generations express more confidence in Social Security than younger generations. When survey respondents are analyzed by generational cohort, the older generational cohorts consistently express more confidence than younger generations. Moreover, generations’ confidence in Social Security increases over time as they age. For example, Baby Boomers expressed less confidence in the program when they were younger, but more confidence in the program as they aged.
• Few pollsters directly ask people if they like Social Security. However, the available polling data suggests that strong majorities hold favorable views of Social Security and believe it is an important government program, perhaps the most important government program.
• Solid majorities of Americans believe more money should be spent on Social Security. This view holds across income, educational attainment, and political affiliation. In fact, Republican respondents have moved decisively toward the view that too little is spent on Social Security in recent years.
• There is a disconnect among workers of different ages about expected retirement age. Younger workers tend to respond that they will retire before age 65, while older workers tend to respond that they will retire after age 65.

For this report, NIRS analyzed data from 15 different surveys for a total of 50 different iterations of surveys covering years 1978 – 2023. Responses from at least 154,500 respondents were included in the analysis. A full methodology is included in the report, and a list of all surveys studied can be found in the report appendix.

The National Institute on Retirement Security is a non-profit, non-partisan organization established to contribute to informed policymaking by fostering a deep understanding of the value of retirement security to employees, employers and the economy as a whole. Located in Washington, D.C., NIRS membership includes financial services firms, employee benefit plans, trade associations, and other retirement service providers. More information is available at www.nirsonline.org.