Gallup Poll: Expected Retirement Age in United States Rises to 67

According to a Gallup poll, the average non-retired American now expects to retire at age 67, up from age 63 a decade ago and age 60 in the mid-1990s. Overall, 26% of non-retirees expect to retire before age 65, with 27% expecting to retire at age 65 and 39% after age 65. The percentage that expect to retire after age 65 is up from 21% in 2002 and 12% in 1995.

Gallup also reports it finds a steady, although less steep, increase in the average age at which retirees actually retired, from age 57 in 1991 to age 60 in 2012. The average retirement age first reached 60 in 2004 and has generally held there since. However, Gallup expects that the average should increase in future years if current non-retirees delay their retirement, as they report in the survey.

Gallup also surveyed how well off workers expect to be in retirement:

Younger nonretirees are also more optimistic than those closer to retirement age about their post-retirement financial situation. Slightly more nonretirees under age 40 believe they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement (48%) than believe they will not (44%). By comparison, nonretirees aged 40 and older are more than twice as likely to think they will not have a comfortable retirement (64%) than to think they will (29%).

Source: Gallup Inc. News Release (April 27, 2012)