Back in the early 1900's when life expectancy was only around 60, if you survived your childhood, you'd likely live to 70 or 80. This didn't seem right so I ch

Back in the early 1900's when life expectancy was only around 60, if you survived your childhood, you'd likely live to 70 or 80. This didn't seem right so I checked. A 20 year old in 1900 could expect to live to 62. In 1939 (4 years after SS was first put in place) a 20 year old would live to 67. Interpretted as a median age of death, you are right that more than 50% of 20 year-olds collected at least 1 check, but a significant fraction died before retirement age, and they generally didn't say in retirement for decades. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html I used white males, and women lived longer but non-whites lived shorter.