NCOA Report on Poverty and Aging
“Low-Income Older Adults Die 9 Years Earlier than Those with Greatest Wealth,” which draws on nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study, highlights the widening wealth gap among Americans age 60+ and the devastating impact of that gap on health and longevity.
“It is shocking and unacceptable that in the United States in 2025, poverty steals almost a decade of older Americans’ lives,” said Ramsey Alwin, NCOA President and CEO.
"Millions of older Americans who worked hard and played by the rules are dying early simply because they don’t have sufficient financial resources. This is a call to action to change our policies and systems to ensure that every person can enjoy the gift of longevity—not just the wealthy.”
Analyzing data from 2018 to 2022, researchers found:
- Wealth is strongly associated with longevity.
Mortality rates among older adults in the bottom 60% of wealth were nearly double those of older adults in the top 20%. In fact, those in the bottom 20% of wealth died on average nine years earlier than those in the top 20%. - Millions of older adults remain financially insecure.
Over 19 million (45%) older adult households do not have the income needed to cover basic living costs based on cost-of-living data from the Elder Index. And 80%, or about 34 million households, are unable to weather a major shock such as widowhood, serious illness, or the need for long-term care.
In the report's conclusion, researchers said, "The future of aging in America will likely be defined by an ever-widening inequality in both financial status and mortality, deepening the divide between the majority of older Americans (the 80%) and the top 20%."