Social Security Full Retirement Age by Birth Year

Full retirement age depends on the year you were born. It is 66 years¹ for 1943 through 1954, then rises two months per birth year, reaching 67 years² for 1960 and later.

The month you reach it is the month the retirement earnings test stops applying to you, which is why the earnings-test calculator asks for your birth month before it asks anything else.

The table

Year you were born	Full retirement age
1943 through 1954	66 years1
1955	66 years and 2 months3
1956	66 years and 4 months4
1957	66 years and 6 months5
1958	66 years and 8 months6
1959	66 years and 10 months7
1960 or later	67 years2

Full retirement age is a month, not a year. Someone born in June 1958 reaches 66 years and 8 months⁶ in February 2025. The date that matters for the earnings test is the first day of that month.

Why the table is keyed to age 62

The statute does not sort people by birth year at all. It sorts them by the calendar date on which they attain early retirement age, which is 62. Under 42 U.S.C. §416(l)(1), retirement age is 66 for a person who attains early retirement age after December 31, 2004 and before January 1, 2017; 66 plus an age increase factor for anyone attaining it between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2021; and 67 for anyone attaining it after December 31, 2021.

Birth-year tables are a restatement of those date ranges. That is also why a single day can move you to a different row.

The day-of-birth rule

Social Security does not treat you as reaching an age on your birthday. POMS RS 00615.015 states it plainly: “Social Security follows English common law that finds that a person attains an age on the day before the birthday.” The section illustrates it with “a person born January 15, 2003 will attain age one on January 14, 2004.”

Two consequences follow from that one rule.

A birthday on the first of a month means you attain the age in the previous month. The same POMS section applies this to early retirement: “a person is age 62 throughout an entire month if the 62nd birthday is on the first or second day of that month.”

A birthday on January 1 moves you back across a year boundary, so the previous birth year’s row of the table applies. Someone born on January 1, 1960 attains age 62 on December 31, 2021. That date falls inside the clause that ends on December 31, 2021, not the clause that begins after it. Their full retirement age is 66 years and 10 months⁷, not 67 years².

What full retirement age decides

Three separate things turn on the month, and only one of them is about how large your check is.

It decides which earnings-test line applies to you. Below full retirement age for a whole calendar year, the lower exempt amount applies. In the calendar year you reach it, a higher exempt amount applies and only earnings in the months before your full-retirement-age month are counted. The current figures are on the 2026 earnings-limit page.

It decides when the test stops. No earnings test from the month you reach full retirement age⁸. From that month you can earn any amount with no withholding.

It decides when the reduction for claiming early is recalculated. Months in which benefits were withheld because of work are taken out of the early-claiming reduction at full retirement age, which is set out in what happens to withheld benefits.

What is my full retirement age?

Find your birth year in the table above: 1943 through 1954 gives 66 years¹, and 1960 or later gives 67 years². Birth years 1955 through 1959 fall in two-month steps between the two.

Is full retirement age 67 for everyone now?

No. It is 67 years² only for people born in 1960 or later. Anyone born in 1959 or earlier has a full retirement age between 66 years¹ and 66 years and 10 months⁷, and the 1955–1959 cohorts are still reaching theirs.

What happens if I was born on January 1?

You use the previous year’s row. Social Security treats you as attaining each age on the day before your birthday, so a January 1 birthday means you attain the age in December of the prior year. That is POMS RS 00615.015, and it is the reason a person born January 1, 1960 has a full retirement age of 66 years and 10 months⁷.

Is full retirement age the same as the earliest age I can claim?

No. Early retirement age is 62 under 42 U.S.C. §416(l), and it has not moved. Full retirement age is the later month at which the benefit is payable without a reduction for age, and it is the month the earnings test stops.

Does the earnings test stop at full retirement age?

Yes, from the month you reach it. No earnings test from the month you reach full retirement age⁸. Earnings in the months of that same calendar year before your full-retirement-age month are still tested, against the higher exempt amount.

Does my birth month change which limit applies?

Yes, in one calendar year only: the year you reach full retirement age. In that year the higher exempt amount applies, and only the months before your full-retirement-age month count. A full-retirement-age month of January leaves no months to test at all.