Full retirement age (FRA) is the age at which you are entitled to 100% of your calculated Social Security retirement benefit. It is not the same as the earliest age you can claim (62) or the age at which Medicare starts (65). It is set by the year you were born under a schedule created by the 1983 Social Security amendments, which gradually raised FRA from 65 to 67.
Your FRA is the anchor for everything else in the system. File before it and your check is permanently reduced. File after it and the check grows by about 8% per year, up to age 70. After 70, delayed retirement credits stop accruing.
Earliest claim age
62
30% reduction if FRA is 67
Current FRA
67
For anyone born 1960 or later
Max benefit age
70
Delayed credits stop here
Monthly delayed credit
0.67%
Per month delayed past FRA
Social Security full retirement age by year of birth
Match your year of birth to your full retirement age below. If you were born on January 1, Social Security treats you as if you were born the previous year, so someone born January 1, 1960 uses the 1959 row, not the 1960 one.
| Year of birth | Full retirement age |
|---|---|
| 1937 or earlier | 65 |
| 1938 | 65 and 2 months |
| 1939 | 65 and 4 months |
| 1940 | 65 and 6 months |
| 1941 | 65 and 8 months |
| 1942 | 65 and 10 months |
| 1943–1954 | 66 |
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months |
| 1960 | 67 |
| 1961 | 67 |
| 1962 | 67 |
| 1963 | 67 |
| 1964 | 67 |
| 1965 | 67 |
| 1966 | 67 |
| 1967 | 67 |
| 1968 | 67 |
| 1969 | 67 |
| 1970 | 67 |
| 1971 | 67 |
| 1972 | 67 |
| 1973 | 67 |
| 1974 | 67 |
| 1975 | 67 |
| 1976 and later | 67 |
Years from 1955 to 1975 link to a dedicated page with the full claim-age chart, dollar examples, and FAQ for that birth cohort.
What claiming at 62, 67, or 70 does to your benefit
The table below shows what claiming at any age between 62 and 70 does to the monthly check. The left column is the math for someone with an FRA of 66 (anyone born between 1943 and 1954). The right column is the math for someone with an FRA of 67 (anyone born in 1960 or later). Percentages are applied to the benefit you would have received at FRA.
| Claim age | Change if FRA = 66 | Change if FRA = 67 |
|---|---|---|
| 62 | −25.00% | −30.00% |
| 63 | −20.00% | −25.00% |
| 64 | −13.33% | −20.00% |
| 65 | −6.67% | −13.33% |
| 66 | 0% | −6.67% |
| 67 | +8% | 0% |
| 68 | +16% | +8% |
| 69 | +24% | +16% |
| 70 | +32% | +24% |
Claiming Social Security at 62: the math nobody quite spells out
Age 62 is the earliest you can claim Social Security retirement, and it is by far the most common claim age. It is also the most expensive. A worker with an FRA of 67 who claims at 62 gives up 30% of their monthly benefit forever. On a $2,000 benefit, that is $600 less per month, $7,200 less per year, and typically $144,000 less over a 20-year retirement if you ignore COLA. With COLA layered on, the gap gets wider every year, because every adjustment is applied to the smaller base.
Claiming at 62 is still the right call for some people. If you have a health issue that shortens your expected lifespan, if you need the cash to avoid pulling from a 401(k) in a down year, or if your spouse is already receiving a much larger benefit and you plan to switch to a survivor benefit later, the early reduction can be the correct trade. If you are healthy, have savings, and do not need the check right now, waiting almost always wins.
Claiming at FRA (66 or 67)
Claiming at your own FRA gives you 100% of your calculated benefit with no reduction. It is the cleanest choice if you want predictable numbers and you are ready to stop working. Note that you can keep working after you claim at FRA without any earnings-test withholding.
Waiting until 70
Every month you delay past FRA adds 0.67% to your benefit, up to age 70. For someone with an FRA of 67, that compounds to a 24% larger check at 70. For someone with an FRA of 66, the total boost is 32%. After age 70, nothing changes no matter how long you wait, so there is no reason to delay past your 70th birthday unless you have a specific reason to keep your benefit unclaimed.
The break-even age between filing at FRA and waiting until 70 is usually somewhere in the late 70s, depending on the math and your discount rate. For people in reasonable health, waiting tends to be the mathematically better play, especially if you have a spouse who could inherit a larger survivor benefit later.
Why full retirement age matters for every Social Security decision
FRA is the anchor for rules that catch people by surprise. It is the age at which the earnings test stops withholding benefits entirely. It is the age at which you can voluntarily suspend benefits to earn delayed retirement credits. It is the age used to calculate spousal benefits: a spouse who waits until their own FRA gets 50% of the worker's benefit, but claiming earlier reduces that share. It is the age used to set survivor benefit maximums.
How the FRA schedule changed
Until the 1983 amendments, full retirement age was 65 for everyone. Congress raised it in part to address projected long-term funding shortfalls in the Social Security trust fund. The schedule raised FRA from 65 to 66 for people born between 1938 and 1954, held it flat at 66 for the 1943 to 1954 cohort, then raised it again to 67 for anyone born between 1955 and 1960. Every year after 1960 uses 67.
Is another FRA increase coming?
Not under current law. Several reform proposals in Congress would raise FRA to 68 or 69 over a long phase-in to address trust-fund solvency. Nothing has been enacted as of 2026. If Congress does change the schedule, existing beneficiaries would not be affected, only future claimants would.
How to use this full retirement age table
Find your year of birth in the first table above. That is your FRA. Then look at the second table to see what claiming at any age between 62 and 70 does to your check. Multiply the percentage by the benefit estimate from your my Social Security account to see your actual dollar amount at each age.
For a step-by-step walkthrough of the claim-age decision and when early versus late filing makes sense for your specific situation, read the Social Security retirement overview.
Full retirement age FAQ
The questions that come up most often about Social Security full retirement age.