Social Security’s First 90 Years: A History of Bipartisan and Intergenerational Support

As Social Security approaches its 90^th anniversary, Social Security’s First 90 Years: A History of Bipartisan and Intergenerational Support examines more than 40 years of public opinion polling on this program established in the wake of the Great Depression to protect older Americans and reduce poverty. The report finds that public support remains strong for Social Security, and Americans become more confident in Social Security as they age and approach retirement.

The review of polling data covering more than forty years from a multitude of organizations revealed the following key findings:

• Confidence in Social Security increases with age. The results of this analysis indicate that being born one year later, i.e., being one year younger, is associated with less confidence in receiving Social Security benefits in the future.
• Older generations express more confidence in Social Security than younger generations. When survey respondents are analyzed by generational cohort, the older generational cohorts consistently express more confidence than younger generations. Moreover, generations’ confidence in Social Security increases over time as they age. For example, Baby Boomers expressed less confidence in the program when they were younger, but more confidence in the program as they aged.
• Few pollsters directly ask people if they like Social Security. However, the available polling data suggests that strong majorities hold favorable views of Social Security and believe it is an important government program, perhaps the most important government program.
• Solid majorities of Americans believe more money should be spent on Social Security. This view holds across income, educational attainment, and political affiliation. In fact, Republican respondents have moved decisively toward the view that too little is spent on Social Security in recent years.
• There is a disconnect among workers of different ages about expected retirement age. Younger workers tend to respond that they will retire before age 65, while older workers tend to respond that they will retire after age 65.

For this report, NIRS analyzed data from 15 different surveys for a total of 50 different iterations of surveys covering years 1978 – 2023. Responses from at least 154,500 respondents were included in the analysis. A full methodology is included in the report, and a list of all surveys studied can be found in the report appendix.