what is full retirement age fra 
the retirement age at which you can receive full retirement benefits from social security is called the full retirement age fra it s also known as normal retirement age fra varies depending on the year you were born fra is 66 years and two months for people born in 1955 and it gradually rises to 67 for those born in 1960 or later 1claiming benefits before you reach full retirement age decreases them permanently fra also applies to pension plans such as employer sponsored plans police officers military service members and other public servants typically receive full benefits after a certain number of service years rather than at a specific age understanding full retirement agethe official retirement age for full social security benefits in the u s is 67 for people born in 1960 or later it s 66 for those born from 1943 to 1954 and 66 and two four six eight or 10 months for people born from 1955 to 1959 the retirement age increases by two months per birth year 1you can elect to receive social security benefits starting at age 62 but claiming benefits at a younger age than your fra will reduce your financial benefit permanently for example your monthly benefit will be 70 of the benefit available at full retirement age if your fra is 67 and you begin claiming benefits at age 62 you d receive 86 7 of the full retirement benefit if you waited to start claiming benefits at age 65 2your benefit will increase by 8 for each year that you delay claiming it after your fra if you were born in 1943 or later waiting until you reach age 70 will yield the maximum benefit there s no reason to wait beyond age 70 because your benefits won t increase any further 3factors other than age such as how much you ve paid into the system over the years affect the size of your social security retirement benefits 4 you must calculate your social security breakeven age to figure out the optimal age to start claiming benefits and to ensure that you properly evaluate the trade offs between the benefits start date and amount history of full retirement agethe fra was 65 when social security began in 1935 legislation in 1983 increased the fra for people born in 1938 or later to a maximum of 67 to account for gains in life expectancy 5social security s trustees project growing deficits for the social security trust fund drawing down its reserves to cover benefit payments the combined reserves of social security s old age and survivors insurance oasi trust fund and the disability insurance di trust fund would be depleted by 2034 according to 2023 annual reports this is a year later than the oasi trust fund alone is expected to pay full benefits 6some lawmakers have cited concerns about the program s solvency in advocating a further increase in the fra social security s projected deficits could be addressed with benefit cuts payroll tax increases or a combination of those approaches they might also be financed with debt alongside other deficit spending 7use the online calculator offered by the social security administration ssa to figure out your full retirement age average retirement age in the u s the average retirement age for americans has increased according to the center for retirement research at boston college 8 even so americans on average are retiring before they reach full retirement age men retire at an average age of 64 6 years the average retirement age for women is 62 3 years the research from boston college shows that the increase in the average retirement age has been fueled in large part by the later retirements of college graduates men with college degrees retire three years later than men who are high school graduates 9one major reason why both men and women who are high school graduates tend to retire earlier is that their health and life expectancy hasn t improved as much as those of college graduates their jobs also tend to be more physically demanding they re not able to take as much time off as workers with college degrees 10full retirement age around the worldfra around the world can be as young as 56 but it typically ranges between 65 and 67 it can differ for men and women in some countries 