Your Social Security Full Retirement Age (FRA) by Birth Year

Updated: August 15, 2026

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Most working retirees still assume Social Security Full Retirement Age is 65. It has not been 65 for a general cohort since 2002. The Social Security Administration has been rolling FRA up in two-month steps, birth year by birth year, ever since the 1983 amendments.

This page lays the SSA table out plainly, one birth-year cohort at a time, and then explains what FRA actually controls beyond the headline age. You need the exact FRA row for your birth year before you can decide anything else about when to claim, because FRA is the peg every other Social Security number hangs from.

Why FRA is no longer 65: the 1983 amendments

When Social Security first paid retired-worker benefits in 1940, the age for a full unreduced benefit was 65. That figure held for four decades. Then Congress passed the 1983 Social Security Amendments, and the law changed the age of eligibility for a full benefit for the first time since the program began.

SSA cites two policy reasons on its own explainer page. People were living longer on average, and older workers were generally healthier than the 1935 cohort had been. Raising the age of a full benefit stretched the retirement window out to match longer lifespans and eased pressure on the trust fund without cutting anyone’s monthly check outright.

Congress chose a slow phase-in. FRA stayed at 65 for anyone born in 1937 or earlier. Starting with the 1938 birth cohort, FRA began climbing in two-month steps each year until it reached 66 for the 1943 cohort. It then paused at 66 for eleven years before climbing again in two-month steps to 67 for the 1960 cohort.

The full FRA table by birth year

This is the SSA table in full, as of 2026. Nothing in this table is projected or estimated. Every row comes from the SSA Retirement Age Calculator page. Find your birth year on the left, and your Full Retirement Age is on the right.

SSA notes two edge cases worth flagging. If you were born on January 1 of any year, SSA treats you as if you were born the previous year. If you were born on the first of any other month, SSA treats you as if you were born the previous month. Both rules can shift your FRA month by one step.

The staircase pattern is easier to see visually than in a table alone. The chart below plots the same 13 rows against the age-65 baseline that held for cohorts born in 1937 or earlier.

How to read the two-month increments in the transition years

The transition years are the ones where FRA changes mid-cohort. Two windows of transition exist. The first ran from 1938 through 1942, moving from 65 up to 65 and 10 months. The second runs from 1955 through 1959, moving from 66 and 2 months up to 66 and 10 months.

Inside a transition cohort, the birth year alone fixes the FRA. Your birth month does not matter for the two-month step itself. What your birth month does control is the calendar month in which you actually reach FRA. Two people born in 1958 both have an FRA of 66 and 8 months, but they will hit that age in different months.

The two 11-year pauses in the table are deliberate. FRA held flat at 66 for anyone born from 1943 through 1954, and it will hold flat at 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Those pauses are the result of how the phase-in was structured by Congress in 1983.

FRA is one of three ages, not the only one

SSA works with three retirement ages, not one. FRA is the middle one. Below it, at age 62, sits the earliest month you can start a retired-worker benefit at all. Above it, at age 70, sits the age at which delayed retirement credits stop accruing.

Age 62 has not moved since the program began. Anyone can file for a retired-worker benefit in the month they turn 62, subject to a small technicality that you must be 62 for a full calendar month before the first check pays. The tradeoff is a permanent reduction based on how many months before your FRA you file.

Age 70 has not moved either. Every month you wait past your FRA up to age 70 earns a delayed retirement credit worth two-thirds of one percent per month, or 8 percent per year, for anyone born in 1943 or later. Waiting past 70 earns nothing extra, so 70 is the cap.

The window from 62 to 70 is 96 months wide. Where FRA sits in that window depends on your birth year. For anyone born in 1960 or later, FRA is exactly at the midpoint, 60 months after 62 and 36 months before 70. For anyone born from 1943 through 1954, FRA sits 48 months after 62 and 48 months before 70.

What your FRA actually controls under the hood

FRA is not only the age at which your benefit is unreduced. It is the peg SSA uses in three other calculations that affect your monthly check.

First, FRA sets the actuarial reduction base. Every month you file before your FRA cuts your benefit by 5 nineths of one percent for the first 36 months, and by 5 twelfths of one percent for any additional months beyond the first 36. For someone with an FRA of 67 who files at 62, the total permanent reduction is 30 percent.

Second, FRA controls the earnings test threshold. SSA withholds part of your benefit if you earn wages above a limit before FRA. The lower annual limit applies in any year before the year of your FRA. A softer higher limit applies only in the calendar year you reach FRA, and only for months before your FRA month. From your FRA month forward the earnings test stops entirely.

Third, FRA drives the spousal and survivor calculations. A spousal benefit maxes out at 50 percent of the worker’s primary insurance amount, and that ceiling only applies if the spouse files at or after their own FRA. A survivor benefit maxes out at 100 percent of the deceased worker’s benefit at time of death, and that ceiling only applies if the widow or widower files at or after their own survivor FRA.

The survivor FRA table is close to but not identical to the retirement FRA table. That is a separate SSA chart, and the survivor benefit sits outside the scope of this page.

A labeled example: translating one birth-year row into filing dates

Take a worker born in July 1958. Reading the table above, the 1958 cohort has an FRA of 66 and 8 months. From a July 1958 birth month, adding 66 years and 8 months lands the FRA month in March 2025. That is when this worker would receive a first unreduced retired-worker check if they filed to start benefits at FRA.

Same worker, filing at age 62. Age 62 lands in July 2020. Because SSA requires being 62 for a full calendar month, the first check would pay for August 2020. Filing 56 months before FRA produces the maximum age-62 reduction for this cohort, which SSA reports as 28.33 percent off the primary insurance amount.

Same worker, waiting to age 70. Age 70 lands in July 2028. That is 40 months of delayed retirement credits past the March 2025 FRA month. At two-thirds of one percent per month, the delayed retirement credit adds 26.67 percent on top of the primary insurance amount, capped at the July 2028 birthday.

The three filing dates for this one worker are August 2020, March 2025, and July 2028. The check size difference between the earliest and latest of those three, holding the underlying primary insurance amount constant, is the actuarial spread. That spread is the practical consequence of the FRA row for the 1958 cohort.

Sources cited

1. Social Security Administration, Retirement Age Calculator (Full Retirement Age by Year of Birth) (official FRA table, 1937 or earlier through 1960 and later; two-month cohort increments; 1983 amendments explainer).
2. Social Security Administration, Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction Chart (percentage reduction at age 62 by birth cohort; months between age 62 and FRA).
3. Social Security Administration, Delayed Retirement Credits (two-thirds of one percent per month credit past FRA up to age 70, by year of birth).
4. Social Security Administration Research, Statistics, and Policy Analysis, The Development of Social Security in America (historical context, including the 1983 Social Security Amendments and the phase-in of FRA above 65).