Average Social Security Benefit of 87-Year-Old Americans, USA News: If you are 87 or getting close to it, your Social Security check probably looks different from what a 67-year-old retiree receives, and not just because of cost-of-living adjustments. The age at which you claimed, the economy you worked through, and even your sex all leave a mark on your monthly benefit decades later.
Comparing yourself to a nationwide average can be misleading at this stage of life, since the numbers tell a more layered story than a single figure suggests. Here is what the data actually shows for Americans at age 87, and why your own number matters more than any benchmark.
December 2025 SSA Data and Averages
As of December 2025, the average monthly benefit for retired workers age 87 was $2,015.54, according to the Social Security Administration’s age-by-age beneficiary data. That breaks down to $2,180.24 for men and $1,875.35 for women at that age, a gap of roughly $305 a month.
For comparison, the average monthly benefit across all retired workers, regardless of age, was $2,071.30 as of December 2025, per the same SSA dataset. That means the typical 87-year-old retiree collects slightly less than the overall average.
Earnings History and Full Retirement Age Factors
Social Security benefits are calculated from your highest 35 years of wage-indexed earnings, a figure known as your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME). That AIME determines your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), the benefit you would receive at full retirement age (FRA), the age at which you qualify for 100% of your calculated benefit.
Today’s 87-year-olds were born around 1938 or 1939, placing their FRA at 65 or close to it, several years earlier than the FRA of 67 that applies to anyone born in 1960 or later. They also built their earnings records in a different wage economy, with lower lifetime earnings on average than today’s workers, and a lower taxable maximum cap.
The Gender Gap in Lifetime Earnings
The difference between what men and women collect at 87 is not a quirk of Social Security rules. Benefit formulas are identical for everyone regardless of sex. The gap traces back to lifetime earnings.
Women in this generation were more likely to leave the workforce for caregiving, work part-time, or earn less than male counterparts across their careers, all of which lower the 35-year earnings average that feeds into the benefit formula. SSA data for December 2025 shows this pattern holds across the broader retired-worker population too, with men averaging $2,282 a month and women averaging $1,872, a gap of about $410.
Income Stability and Tax Considerations in Late Life
By your late 80s, Social Security often is not just a supplement anymore. It frequently becomes the most stable, and sometimes the dominant, source of monthly income. Pensions may have been structured as fixed amounts set decades ago and eroded by inflation, while Social Security adjusts annually through the COLA.
Under current IRS and SSA rules, if combined income exceeds $25,000 for single filers or $32,000 for joint filers, up to 50% of the benefit may be taxable, with up to 85% taxable above higher thresholds. Medicare Part B standard monthly premiums, which sit at $202.90 for 2026 according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, are often deducted directly from Social Security checks.
