Table 1: Life Expectancy for Social Security
Year Cohort Turned 65Percentage of Population Surviving from Age 21 to Age 65Average Remaining Life Expectancy for Those Surviving to Age 65
 

Male

Female

Male

Female

1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990

53.9
56.2
60.1
63.7
67.8
72.3

60.6
65.5
71.3
76.9
80.9
83.6

12.7
13.1
13.2
13.8
14.6
15.3

14.7
16.2
17.4
18.6
19.1
19.6

Table 2: Americans Age 65  or Older 1880-1990

Year

Number of Americans Age 65 or Older

1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000

 1.7 million
2.4 million
3.0 million
3.9 million
4.9 million
6.7 million
9.0 million
12.7 million
17.2 million
20.9 million
26.1 million
31.9 million
34.9 million

Life expectancy changes couldn't have been because we were eating better today than in years past.


Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

-- Dwight Eisenhower