Social Security Income in Poor or Nearly Poor Elderly Populations

The economic status of older adults in the United States today is greatly improved, and there is much diversity of circumstances among different elder populations. In 2004 inflation-adjusted dollars, the median income of elderly households had increased from $13,228 in 1960 to $24,509 in 2004. Since the mid-1950s, poverty, as measured in 2005 by the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds, has decreased for all age groups but most noticeably for adults age 65 years and older. (more…)