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Retirement Redefined: By The Numbers & Useful Links

By Michel Marizco / Senior Field Correspondent,  Laurel Morales / Senior Field Correspondent
Published September 1, 2010 at 9:00 PM PDT
This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Retirement By The Numbers

The number of people 65 and older in the United States on July 1, 2009: 39.6 million

Projected population of people 65 and older in 2050: 88.5 million

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Percentage that people 65 and older will comprise the American population in 2050: 20

Percentage lost in pension funds and retirement accounts in 2008: 10

Number of bankruptcies filed in 2010: 1.5 million

Percentage of people 65 or older who make up the workforce in 2011: 16

Number of people 65 and older who were in the labor force in 2009: 6.5 million

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Number of people 65 and older projected to work in 2018: 11.1 million

Average age of retirement for men in 2011: 64

Average age of retirement for women in 2011: 62

Age workers should retire if they’re earning less than $72,500 a year: 72

Percentage change over the last decade in the number of multi-generational households in Nevada: 70

Percentage of people who live on Social Security alone: 34

Percentage of people 65 and older living below the poverty line in 2009: 8.9

Percentage of retirees age 65 and older who got 90 percent or more of their retirement income from Social Security in 2008: 34

Estimated number of centenarians in the United States in 2010: 71,991

Projected number of centenarians in the United States in 2050: 601,000

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Center for Retirement Research, Employee Benefit Research Institute, Retirement Reset Study

Links To Retirement Resources

  1. Resources on how to create directives for those who become seriously ill.
  2. California Partnership for Long-Term Care
  3. Arizona Long Term Care Systems Offices
  4. Texas Long-Term Care Resource Page
  5. Nevada Long-Term Care Ombudsman
  6. New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Care Services
  7. Census data about people over 65
  8. How to Retire on Social Security Alone
  9. Ten Reasons to Delay Retirement
  10. Study shows Americans have new retirement expectations
  11. Center for Retirement Research
  12. CNN’s Ultimate Guide to Retirement
  13. How the baby boom generation is revising its approach to careers, money and lifestyle after age 50.
  14. Retirement Planning Help
  15. AARP’s Advice and News for the Over 50 Crowd
Michel Marizco
Senior Field Correspondent Michel Marizco (Tucson) has reported along the Southwest border for the past decade, most of that in Arizona and Sonora. Before joining the Fronteras Desk, he produced stories in the field for CNN Madrid, the BBC, 60 Minutes Australia, and the CBC. His work now focuses on transnational trafficking syndicates, immigration, federal law enforcement and those weird, wild stories that make the U.S.-Mexico border such an inherently fascinating region. He is a contributing author on Shared Responsibility: U.S.-Mexico Policy Options for Confronting Organized Crime and an occasional writer at High Country News. In his spare time, he works with Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, assisting in the ongoing investigations of journalist killings in Mexico.
See stories by Michel Marizco
Laurel Morales
Senior Field Correspondent Laurel Morales (Flagstaff) has been a public radio reporter for 10 years; eight of them in Arizona. She has won several awards for her work, including national recognition from Public Radio News Director Inc. (PRNDI) for the only commentary she’s ever written. She prefers to highlight compelling voices other than her own and has covered blizzards, wildfires, floods and tornadoes. Morales came to northern Arizona from rural Minnesota where she worked as a reporter after receiving her master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
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