2024 Update to the OASDI Beneficiaries by State and County

Almost four years ago I wrote an article about the 2020 OASDI Beneficiaries by State and County report. The report is put out by the Social Security Administration (SSA), and provides a wealth of interesting statistics. Here is the link to the 2024 report where you can investigate detailed national and local data.

Here are some basic numbers for context. As of December 2020, the U.S. population was 329,484,123. Four year later it had grown 3.5%, to 341,145,670. About 20% of the population receives some form of benefit. The population age 65 or older grew by 9.9%, to almost 18% of the population. The number of people receiving retirement benefits grew by a slightly less amount of 7.1%.  The table below provides some data indicating the change over the last four years. It’s not surprising that our population is trending older.

Item                                                    2020                            2024                     Increase 

US Population                                     329,484,123                341,145,670                3.5%

Population 65 or older                        55,659,365                  61,179,918                  9.9%

Receiving Benefits                              64,850,867                  68,455,973                  5.6%

Retirement Benefits                           48,329,595                  51,772,651                  7.1%

Survivor Benefits                                5,874,648                    5,785,602                    -1.5%

Disability Benefits                               8,151,016                    7,231,147                    -11.3%

West Virginia still has the largest population receiving benefits at 27.1% of the population. After that come Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.  Utah claimed the prize this time as the state with the lowest portion of the population receiving benefits, at 13.5%. The report provides county by county data for the 50 states, US territories, and US citizens living abroad. My favorites statistic is there are 360 people receiving benefits whose whereabouts are unknown.

Four years ago, I concluded the article by expressing hope that Congress would eventually make changes to shore up Social Security—because politicians wouldn’t want to risk the wrath of their constituents who are most likely (seniors) to vote. Almost four years later I still have hope, but it’s waning.