Average Social Security Benefit: $2,170 a Month From January 2027

The average Social Security benefit for a retired worker was $2,088.79 a month in September 2026, SSA’s Monthly Statistical Snapshot says. After the 3.6% cost-of-living increase, SSA estimates that the average retired worker will get $2,170 a month in January 2027, up from $2,095 before the increase (SSA).

Sources (Social Security Administration unless named): 2027 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet; Monthly Statistical Snapshot, September 2026. Checked October 29, 2026.

An average hides a wide range. A retired worker’s check depends on a lifetime of earnings and on the age the benefit started, so two neighbors can get very different amounts. For your own figure, use the Social Security calculator with your earnings record. It is an estimate; the amount SSA works out when you apply is the exact one.

What is the average Social Security check right now?

For retired workers it was $2,088.79 a month in September 2026, across 55.1 million people (SSA). In all, 71.6 million people got Social Security that month: retired and disabled workers, their families, and survivors. The averages for the other groups were lower:

• spouses of retired workers: $986.68;
• widows and widowers who are not disabled: $1,935.32;
• disabled workers: $1,636.47.

These are averages of what was paid for one month. The January 2027 figures in the next section are SSA’s estimates for a later month.

How does SSA work out the average?

It divides the total paid to a group for the month by the number of people in the group. For September 2026, SSA paid retired workers about $115.1 billion, spread over 55.1 million people (SSA). That gives the $2,088.79 average.

Which group you look at changes the answer. The average across all 71.6 million people paid Social Security is lower than the retired-worker average, because it includes spouses, children and disabled workers, whose averages are lower (SSA). So when you see an average quoted, check which group and which month it is for.

A Medicare premium, for people who pay it through Social Security, is taken out of the benefit before it is paid (20 CFR 404.313). So the amount that reaches a bank account can be less than the benefit itself.

Who counts as a retired worker?

Anyone paid a retirement benefit on their own work record, whether they started at 62 or at 70. Disabled workers join this group at full retirement age, when their disability benefit becomes a retirement benefit by itself (20 CFR 404.310). People paid as a spouse or as a widow or widower are counted in those groups instead (SSA).

What will the average benefit be in 2027?

SSA expects the average retired worker to get $2,170 a month in January 2027 (SSA). That is its estimate for January before the 3.6% increase, $2,095, raised by the increase. SSA’s other estimates for January 2027:

• an aged couple, both getting benefits: $3,238 before the increase and $3,355 after;
• an “aged widow(er) alone”, in SSA’s words: $1,936, then $2,005;
• all disabled workers: $1,642, then $1,701.

SSA also estimates averages for families with children, such as a widowed mother with two children. The table above shows them.

The increase applies to benefits for December 2026, which are paid in January 2027 (SSA’s notice). The January estimate before the increase is not the same as September’s average, because the two describe different months. The 2027 COLA page has more on the increase and who gets it.

Why is your benefit probably not the average?

Because the average mixes very different people. Low and high earners, people who started at 62 and at 70, and people who retired decades ago are all in it. Someone who retired long ago started from the wage levels of that time, and their check has grown since only by the yearly increases. Someone with gaps in their career has zeros among the 35 years SSA averages.

Your own pay matters most. Take someone born in 1965 whose pay kept pace with average wages. By SSA’s formula, their benefit at 67 is about $1,843 at $40,000 a year and about $3,400 at $100,000, in today’s dollars. The table by salary has every level of pay.

Your estimate on the scale with SSA’s averages

$2,377

Your estimate$2,377a month at 67, in today’s dollars

SSA’s estimated average, January 2027$2,170All retired workers

Year of birthPay a year$Pay a year

January 2027September 2026

• Retired$2,170
• Couple$3,355
• Widow(er)$2,005
• Disabled$1,701

Your estimate, $2,377 a month at 67, is $207 more than SSA’s estimated January 2027 average for all retired workers, $2,170.

The age you start matters as much. For anyone born in 1960 or later, starting at 62 pays 70% of the full amount, and waiting to 70 pays 124% (SSA). The choice is set out in when to claim.

At the top, the most a worker reaching full retirement age in 2027 can get is $4,188 a month (SSA). SSA’s example of a worker who earned the maximum every year from 22 and started at 70 in January 2027 gets $5,358, more than twice the average (SSA). The maximum benefit page has the rest of SSA’s examples.

Why are the averages for spouses and widows different?

Because they are paid on someone else’s record, by different rules. A spouse’s benefit can be as much as half of the worker’s full amount (SSA). So the average for spouses, $986.68, is less than half the retired-worker average.

A widow or widower can get up to 100% of the late spouse’s benefit at full retirement age for survivors (SSA). That is why the average for widows and widowers, $1,935.32, is close to the retired-worker average.

If you can get your own benefit and a family benefit, SSA pays the higher amount; it does not add the two together (SSA). Disabled workers’ benefits are figured from earnings up to the year they became disabled, which is often a shorter career (20 CFR 404.211). Their average was $1,636.47 in September 2026.

1. The worker’s full benefit (PIA)What the worker gets at full retirement age
2. SpouseUp to half of it, less if started before the spouse’s full retirement age
3. ChildUp to half of it while the worker is living
4. Widow or widowerUp to 100% of the worker’s benefit (with any credits for waiting), from 60 at 71.5%
5. Child after a deathAbout 75% of the worker’s benefit
6. Family maximum150% to about 188% of the PIA in all (bend points $1,712, $2,471, $3,223)

The drawing shows who can be paid on one worker’s record: a spouse, an ex-spouse, children, and a widow or widower.

What is the average for a married couple?

SSA estimates $3,355 a month in January 2027 for an aged couple who both get benefits, up from $3,238 before the 3.6% increase (SSA). That is the two checks together. It is more than one retired worker’s average and less than two.

Each spouse’s check is worked out on its own: from their own record, or as a spouse on the other’s record, whichever pays more (SSA). A couple where both had long careers can get far more than the average couple.

What is the average Social Security benefit in your state?

The states page lists the average retired-worker benefit in every state and DC for December 2025. Its figures come from SSA’s state tables of the number of people paid and the amounts paid, and it also says whether each state taxes Social Security.

Those state figures are for an earlier month than the national ones on this page. So compare states with one another, or with a national figure for December 2025, not with September 2026. Benefits follow lifetime pay, so states where pay has been higher tend to have higher averages.

Does the average include SSI?

No. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a separate program that SSA runs for people with little income and few resources. In September 2026, about 7.3 million people got SSI, and the average payment was $735.86 (SSA). The most SSI pays from the federal government in 2027 is $1,029 a month for one person and $1,544 for a couple (SSA).

Some people get both. In all, 76 million people get Social Security, SSI or both, and the 3.6% increase applies to all of them (SSA). The first raised SSI payment is paid on December 31, 2026 (SSA). If you already get benefits, the calculator on the 2027 COLA page works out your own January 2027 check.

Why does the average go up every year?

For two reasons. First, each December’s cost-of-living increase raises every check already being paid (SSA). Second, each new group of retirees starts from a higher wage level. SSA indexes earnings so that benefits “reflect the general rise in the standard of living” during a worker’s career, and raises the formula’s bend points with average wages (SSA’s notice).

The size of the increase changes from year to year. It was 2.8% for 2026 and is 3.6% for 2027, and in some years there was none at all: in January 2010, January 2011 and January 2016 (SSA).

Figures checked October 29, 2026.

Questions people ask

What is the average Social Security benefit by age?

The averages on this page are by type of benefit, not by age. For anyone born in 1960 or later, a benefit started at 62 is 70% of the full amount, at 67 it is 100%, and at 70 it is 124% (SSA). The calculator shows yours at every age from 62 to 70.

What is the average Social Security benefit for a married couple?

SSA estimates $3,355 a month in January 2027 for an aged couple who both get benefits, after the 3.6% increase (SSA).

What was the average Social Security benefit in 2026?

For retired workers it was $2,088.79 a month in September 2026, the latest month SSA had reported when this page was checked (SSA).

How much is the average Social Security increase in 2027?

The increase is 3.6% for everyone getting benefits (SSA). For the average retired worker, SSA estimates it takes the check from $2,095 to $2,170 a month.

What is the average Social Security disability benefit?

Disabled workers got $1,636.47 a month on average in September 2026 (SSA). SSA expects $1,701 in January 2027.

What is the average widow’s benefit?

Widows and widowers who are not disabled got $1,935.32 a month on average in September 2026 (SSA). SSA estimates $2,005 in January 2027 for an aged widow or widower alone.

Updated November 7, 2026