What Is My Full Retirement Age? Lookup Table by Birth Year
A quick reference for your exact Social Security full retirement age, and what claiming earlier or later actually costs or pays you.
Your full retirement age (FRA) is the age at which Social Security pays your full calculated benefit — no reduction for claiming early, no bonus for claiming late. It depends entirely on the year you were born. This page is a quick lookup, not a debate about whether the system should change; if you're interested in the policy argument over raising or restructuring the retirement age, see our separate piece on that debate. This one is just about figuring out your own number.
Full retirement age by birth year
| Birth year | Full retirement age |
|---|---|
| 1943–1954 | 66 |
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months |
| 1960 or later | 67 |
If you were born on January 1st of any year, Social Security calculates your benefit as if you were born in the previous year — a quirk worth knowing if your birthday falls exactly on that date.
What claiming early actually costs
You can start claiming as early as 62, but every month before your full retirement age reduces your benefit permanently — the reduction doesn't go away once you reach FRA, it applies for the rest of your life. For someone with a full retirement age of 67, claiming at the earliest possible age of 62 works out to roughly 70% of the full benefit, a permanent reduction of about 30%.
What waiting past FRA actually pays
Delaying past your full retirement age adds delayed retirement credits, worth roughly 8% per year, up until age 70. For someone with a full retirement age of 67, waiting the full three years to age 70 brings the benefit up to roughly 124% of the full retirement age amount. There's no additional credit for waiting past 70 — claiming later than that just means giving up months of payments for no additional benefit, so 70 is a hard ceiling worth knowing.
Quick comparison at a glance
| Claiming age | Approx. % of full benefit (FRA = 67) |
|---|---|
| 62 (earliest possible) | ~70% |
| 67 (full retirement age) | 100% |
| 70 (maximum, no further credit after) | ~124% |
This table tells you your number — not what to do with it
Knowing your FRA and the rough percentages above is step one. Deciding when to actually claim depends on your health, other income, whether you're still working, and your household's broader retirement picture — factors this lookup table can't account for. We cover that decision separately in when to actually claim Social Security, since it deserves more than a table.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Full retirement age (FRA) is the age at which you're entitled to 100% of your calculated Social Security benefit, with no early-claiming reduction and no delayed-claiming credit. It depends on your birth year, ranging from 66 to 67.
Your full retirement age is 67. This applies to everyone born in 1960 or later under current law.
For someone with a full retirement age of 67, claiming at 62 (the earliest possible age) permanently reduces your benefit to roughly 70% of what you'd get at full retirement age — a reduction of about 30%.
Delaying past full retirement age adds delayed retirement credits of about 8% per year, up until age 70. For someone with a full retirement age of 67, waiting until 70 increases the benefit to roughly 124% of the full retirement age amount.
No. Delayed retirement credits stop accumulating at age 70, so there's no financial benefit to waiting past that age, and you'd simply be forfeiting months of payments you're otherwise entitled to.
Factor your Social Security timing into your full retirement income picture.