Stats for the Curious, Direct from SSA
You’ve probably seen an article or two referencing the number of people receiving Social Security benefits of one kind or another–61.9 million, in fact–and you may wonder what types of benefits these folks receive and the dollar value of these benefits. You may also wonder where these beneficiaries reside, what age categories they fall in, or even how many are male vs. female. Well, wonder no more. The Social Security Administration’s Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics recently released the newest edition of its OASDI Beneficiaries by State and County report, providing answers to these detail questions.
The report, accessible here, “focuses on the Social Security beneficiary population—people receiving Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits—at the local level. It presents basic program data on the number and type of beneficiaries and the amount of benefits paid in each state and county. It also shows the numbers of men and women aged 65 or older receiving benefits.” Within the report’s five extensive tables, one can find current state- and county-level data along with myriad analyses of beneficiary data culled from SSA’s Master Beneficiary Record, the “…the principal administrative file of Social Security beneficiaries.”