Full Retirement Age by Birth Year: Why 1960 Is the Last Cohort That Matters

At a glance: Your full retirement age depends only on your birth year. Born 1943–1954, it is 66. It then rises two months per birth year — 66 and 2 months for 1955, up to 66 and 10 months for 1959 — and for anyone born in 1960 or later it is 67, full stop. The 1960 row is the last step of a staircase Congress built in 1983; there is no next step in current law. Two warnings belong at the top: if you were born on January 1, Social Security uses the previous year's row; and your survivor full retirement age comes from a different chart that does not finish rising until the 1962 birth year. Medicare, meanwhile, never moved — it is still 65. The complete chart is below, row for row from SSA.

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Almost every Social Security decision you will ever make is dated from one number: your full retirement age (FRA). Claim before it and the cut is permanent. Reach it and the earnings test lets go of your paycheck. Pass it and delayed credits build toward 70. Get the number wrong by a few months — as many people born in the late 1950s do when they assume "66" is their finish line — and every decision is priced wrong. This page is the desk's reference for the number itself: the official chart, the edge cases, and a priced look at what the in-between rows cost.

The full retirement age chart, by birth year

This is the Social Security Administration's own chart, from its Benefits Planner page "Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction," reproduced in full. The last two columns price the earliest possible start: what claiming at exactly 62 does to a $1,000 full-retirement benefit, by row.

Year of birth	Full retirement age	Months from 62 to full retirement age	Benefit at 62 (on $1,000 at FRA)	Reduction at 62
1943–1954	66	48	$750	25.00%
1955	66 and 2 months	50	$741	25.83%
1956	66 and 4 months	52	$733	26.67%
1957	66 and 6 months	54	$725	27.50%
1958	66 and 8 months	56	$716	28.33%
1959	66 and 10 months	58	$708	29.17%
1960 and later	67	60	$700	30.00%

Read the chart the way SSA prints it. The staircase has exactly six steps after the long 66 plateau, and it ends in 1960. If you were born before 1943, your row is above this chart: FRA was 65 for birth years 1937 and earlier, rising two months a year from 1938 (65 and 2 months) to 1942 (65 and 10 months) before settling at 66 for 1943 — the first stage of the same 1983 staircase, published in full by SSA's actuarial office. Everyone reading this page for their own planning, though, is in the seven rows above.

Find yours in 10 seconds

• Find your birth-year row. That is the whole lookup — no earnings test, no work history, no marital status. Nothing else changes your retirement FRA.
• Add the months to your birthday. Born in March 1958? Your FRA is 66 and 8 months, so you reach it in November 2024 — your 66th birthday plus eight months. Your FRA date is always your 66th birthday plus the months in your row.
• Born on the 1st of the month? SSA figures your benefit and your full retirement age as if your birthday fell in the previous month (SSA's footnote, verbatim in substance). A 1st-of-the-month birthday can pull your FRA date a month earlier than the calendar suggests.
• Born on January 1? You do not use your own row at all — see the next section. You may be a full row lower than everyone else born in your year.

The free one-page FRA + Key Dates Card at the end of this article prints this chart with space to write in your own three dates — the day you reach FRA, your earliest claiming month, and your 70th birthday. Get the free card (PDF) → or have it emailed to you →.

The January 1 rule: the one birthday that changes rows

SSA's chart carries a footnote that moves real money: "If you were born on January 1st, you should refer to the previous year." The agency works the same logic through the whole calendar — a benefit and a full retirement date are figured as if a January 1 birthday had occurred in December of the year before.

Priced, on the live edge of the chart: someone born January 1, 1960 does not get the 1960 row. They get the 1959 row — FRA 66 and 10 months — and reach it on November 1, 2026, two months before their 1960-born classmates reach 67 in January 2027. Claiming "at 67" is, for them, claiming two months late — harmless. Claiming "at 66" because a headline said so would be 10 months early, a 5.56% cut — the subject of the priced section below. If your birthday is January 1, every FRA statement anyone makes about your birth year is about somebody else. Use the row above yours.

One more footnote rides with it: to receive benefits at the earliest age, you must be 62 for the entire month — a mid-month 62nd birthday means your first possible month is the following one. It is a small rule that surprises January-born claimants in particular.

Why 1960 is the last cohort that matters

The staircase was built by the Social Security Amendments of 1983 (Public Law 98-21, signed April 20, 1983) — the rescue package that followed the National Commission on Social Security Reform. SSA's own legislative summary describes the retirement-age provision in one sentence: it "raises the age of eligibility for unreduced retirement benefits in two stages to 67 by the year 2027. Workers born in 1938 will be the first group affected by the gradual increase. Benefits will still be available at age 62, but with greater reduction."

The two stages are the two staircases in the actuarial table: 65 rising to 66 across the 1938–1943 birth years, a long landing at 66 for everyone born 1943–1954, then 66 rising to 67 across 1955–1960. Which makes 2027 a quietly historic year for this chart: the 1960 birth cohort — the last one with a moving target — reaches full retirement age across 2027, and the 44-year phase-in is complete. From then on the chart has one answer for every new retiree: 67.

Proposals to raise it further are a Washington perennial — but a proposal is not a law. No enacted law adds a step above 67, and SSA's published chart today ends at "1960 and later: 67" with nothing after it. Plan on the law that exists; if the chart ever changes, this page changes with it.

What your full retirement age actually controls

Five doors swing on the FRA hinge. Two more are commonly hung on it by mistake — they belong to other hinges entirely.

• 1. The price of claiming early. Benefits claimed before FRA are reduced by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months early, and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond 36 (SSA's actuarial office). That is why the chart's last column climbs with the rows: claiming at 62 costs 25% on the 66 plateau and 30% for the 1960-and-later cohort. The break-even math of when to claim on your own record is our Social Security at 62 vs 67 vs 70 guide.
• 2. The end of the earnings test. While you are under FRA, earnings above the annual limit reduce benefits ($1 for every $2 over, $1 for every $3 in your FRA year). SSA states the release plainly: "Beginning with the month you reach full retirement age, your earnings no longer reduce your benefits, no matter how much you earn." Your FRA date — not your 65th or 66th birthday — is the day work stops costing you benefits. The 2027 limits live in our earnings-limits guide.
• 3. The start of delayed credits — and of suspension. Past FRA, each month you delay adds delayed retirement credits (8% a year for everyone born 1943 or later, stopping at 70). FRA is also the first age at which you may suspend a benefit already started and rebuild it at that 8% rate — mechanics and side effects are in our suspension guide.
• 4. Not your survivor full retirement age — a different chart. If you are widowed, survivor benefits run on their own schedule: 66 for survivors born 1945–1956, rising gradually across 1957–1962, and 67 for anyone born 1962 or later. SSA's survivor booklet says it outright: this "is different from the full retirement age for retirement benefits, which is 67 for people born in 1960 or later." Two charts, two finish lines, two different final cohorts (1960 vs 1962). Do not price a survivor decision off the retirement chart — the strategy built on the survivor clock is our Survivor Switch guide.
• 5. Not Medicare. Medicare is still 65. The 1983 staircase moved Social Security's age twice and never touched Medicare eligibility: your Initial Enrollment Period still opens three months before your 65th birthday whatever your FRA is. SSA's own planner warns that if you delay benefits past 65 you should still apply for Medicare within three months of turning 65, or Part B and Part D can cost you more — the two late-enrollment penalties, priced for life, are in our Turning 65 guide.

The in-between rows, priced: claiming "at 66" when 66 is not your age

The six step-years (1955–1960) are where the chart does its quiet damage — not at 62, but at 66, when a reader born in the late 1950s files "at full retirement age" that is not theirs. Every month in that gap is a first-36-months month, cut at 5/9 of 1% — so a full year claimed early costs 6.67%, permanently. On a $2,000 monthly benefit at FRA:

Born	Your FRA	Claiming at 66 is…	Permanent cut	Check at 66 (on $2,000 at FRA)	Cost per year
1957	66 and 6 months	6 months early	3.33%	$1,933.33	$800.04
1958	66 and 8 months	8 months early	4.44%	$1,911.11	$1,066.68
1959	66 and 10 months	10 months early	5.56%	$1,888.89	$1,333.32

(Worked example, machine-checked: reduction = months early × 5/9 of 1%, applied to a $2,000 primary insurance amount. The 1957 row is a $66.67-a-month cut — $800.04 a year, about $16,000 across a 20-year retirement, before cost-of-living adjustments.)

None of this makes claiming at 66 a mistake — health, work, and a spouse's record can all argue for it — and two mechanisms soften it: benefits withheld by the earnings test before FRA are recredited at FRA, and from FRA you may suspend and rebuild at 8% a year toward 70. It makes claiming at 66 by accident a mistake: a 1959-born reader who waits the extra 10 months to their actual FRA collects the full $2,000; one who trusts the round number collects $1,888.89 for life. The chart at the top of this page is the entire fix.

Frequently asked questions

What is the full retirement age for someone born in 1960?

67. The 1960 birth year is the final step of the 1983 phase-in: 66 and 10 months belongs to 1959, and 1960 and later is 67. The 1960 cohort reaches 67 across 2027 — unless you were born on January 1, 1960, in which case see the next answer but one.

Is full retirement age 67 if I was born in 1961? Or 1965?

Yes — the same answer for every birth year from 1960 onward: 67. There are no further steps in current law, so a 1961-born and a 1965-born reader share a row with the 1960 cohort. (A spouse or survivor benefit may run on different ages — survivor FRA uses its own chart, finishing at the 1962 birth year.)

What if I was born on January 1, 1960?

You use the previous year's row: your full retirement age is 66 and 10 months (the 1959 figure), reached on November 1, 2026. SSA's footnote is direct — "If you were born on January 1st, you should refer to the previous year" — because the agency figures your benefit as if a January 1 birthday occurred the December before.

I was born in 1957 and I claimed at 66, thinking that was full retirement age. How much did it cost?

Your FRA was 66 and 6 months, so claiming at 66 was 6 months early — a permanent 3.33% reduction (6 × 5/9 of 1%). On a $2,000 full-retirement benefit that is $66.67 a month, $800.04 a year, for life. Two consolations: months the earnings test withheld before FRA are recredited at FRA, and from FRA you may suspend and rebuild at 8% a year to 70.

Is my survivor full retirement age the same number?

No. Survivor benefits have their own chart: 66 if you were born from 1945 to 1956, rising gradually for birth years 1957–1962, and 67 if you were born in 1962 or later. The two schedules end two birth years apart, and survivor benefits can start as early as 60 — a different clock with different math, covered in our Survivor Switch guide.

Does reaching full retirement age change anything about Medicare?

Nothing. Medicare eligibility is 65 for every row of the chart — the 1983 law that raised Social Security's age never moved Medicare's. Your enrollment window opens three months before your 65th birthday even if your FRA is 67, and delaying Medicare past 65 without qualifying employer coverage triggers the Part B and Part D late-enrollment penalties.

Will Congress raise full retirement age above 67?

Not in any law on the books today. Raising it is proposed regularly, but no enacted legislation adds a step beyond 67, and SSA's published chart lists "1960 and later" at 67 with no further rows. Treat 67 as the planning number; proposals are worth watching, not budgeting.

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Keep your three dates on the refrigerator: the free FRA + Key Dates Card prints the full birth-year chart on one page, with lines to write in the date you reach full retirement age, your earliest claiming month at 62, and your age-70 date — plus the January 1 rule and the survivor-chart warning. Get the free card (PDF) → or have it emailed to you →. Browse every worksheet this desk publishes on the Worksheets library page.

Sources & official figures

• Social Security Administration — Benefits Planner: Retirement — Retirement Age & Benefit Reduction — the chart reproduced above (full retirement age by year of birth; benefit at 62 on a $1,000 FRA benefit; the January 1 and 1st-of-the-month footnotes; the entire-month-at-62 rule): https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html
• Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief Actuary — Normal Retirement Age — the full table from 1937 and prior (65) through 1960 and later (67), including the 1938–1942 first-stage steps: https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/nra.html
• Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief Actuary — Early or Late Retirement — the reduction rates (5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months, 5/12 beyond) and the delayed retirement credit of 8.0% per year for those born 1943 or later, with no credit after 69: https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/quickcalc/early_late.html
• Social Security Administration — Benefits Planner: Receiving Benefits While Working — the earnings test ($1 per $2 under FRA; $1 per $3 in the FRA year; 2026 limits $24,480 / $65,160) and the release at FRA: earnings in or after the month you reach full retirement age no longer reduce benefits: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html
• Social Security Administration — Legislative History: Summary of P.L. 98-21, Social Security Amendments of 1983 — the two-stage increase "to 67 by the year 2027," workers born in 1938 first affected, benefits still available at 62 with greater reduction: https://www.ssa.gov/history/1983amend.html
• Social Security Administration — Survivors Benefits (Publication No. EN-05-10084) — the survivor full retirement age (66 for 1945–1956, rising gradually 1957–1962, 67 for 1962 or later) stated as different from the retirement FRA of 67 for 1960 or later: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10084.pdf

Last updated: October 25, 2026 — every row checked against SSA's Benefits Planner and actuarial tables on October 25, 2026. The chart states current law; if Congress enacts a new schedule, this page will be re-checked and re-dated.

Disclaimer: The Retirement Desk publishes education, not financial, tax, or legal advice. Full retirement ages and percentages are Social Security's published figures; worked examples use a $2,000 primary insurance amount as a labelled illustration, and your own benefit statement — in your my Social Security account — carries your personal figures. Claiming decisions interact with spousal, survivor, tax and health facts this page does not attempt to settle.

Filed under: Social Security — The Retirement Desk, the situation-first retirement money desk for Americans 60–75.