AARP Releases State of 50+ America Report

The AARP has just issued its latest annual “State of 50+ America” report. The report shows that despite the nation’s growing economy, the income of most mid-life and older Americans has not increased since the late 1990’s, and has in fact decreased over the past year. Although the year-to-year changes are slight, AARP continues to be concerned about the cumulative effect of rapidly rising health care costs, the uncertain future of pensions, and threats to the guaranteed benefit of Social Security that the majority of Americans rely on as their primary source of retirement income.

Other key findings include:

• In addition to health care affordability, the percent of 50+ Americans reporting their health as excellent or very good—a widely-used measure of health—declined slightly between 2003 and 2004 from 47.5 percent to 47 percent.
• Real median family income decreased 1.5 percent in the most recent one-year period.
• About half (50.1 percent) of the population age 62 and older received more than half of their income from sources other than Social Security in 2004, a slight increase from the previous year.
• More than half of Americans age 50+ (55 percent) said that housing costs are a larger share of their budget today compared to five years ago.

Access the full report here. For more information about AARP, visit www.aarp.org. [Return to top]