How dependent is Florida on Social Security? Study ranks state, how much people make
Senior citizens in Florida may be facing rougher retirement years than they hoped.
President Donald Trump has promised to exempt Social Security from federal income tax, which would provide a short-term gain, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that would deplete the Social Security Trust Fund even faster than declining revenues are now. If no other changes were made, that would force major cuts in Social Security benefits within seven years, the CBO said.
Many Americans have also seen their 401(k) retirement funds drop in recent months as Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs have caused massive upheavals in the stock markets.
However, Social Security checks could increase by 2.4% next year based on the May 13 consumer inflation report, according to estimates by an independent analyst.
Just under 74 million people received benefits in April 2025, including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or both, according to data from the Social Security Administration. Of those, 77.1% were aged 65 or older.
Getting by: How much to Americans rely on programs like Medicaid and Social Security?
According to an analysis by personal finance site GOBankingRates, Florida has the fourth-highest percentage of households with Social Security income, 36.72%, behind West Virginia (41.22%), Maine (37.27%), and Hawaii (37.18%).
That means 3,139,979 Florida households, more than a third of the families in the state, receive some form of Social Security benefits.
The average Social Security income in Florida, as of April 3, 2025, was $24,048, the analysis found, with the average total income from retirement and Social Security income at $59,497.
Florida had more than 5 million people claiming Social Security benefits as of December 2023, according to the SSA. That included more than 3.9 million retirees, over 478,000 disabled workers, more than 401,000 spouses or survivors and nearly 240,000 children.
Nearly one in five Florida retirees, family members, veterans and others receive Social Security benefits, according to the AARP.
Supplemental Security Income is a benefit payment for those with limited income or resources aged 65 or older, who are visually impaired or have a qualifying disability. Children with a qualifying disability can also get SSI, according to the SSA's website.
Adults who earn more than $2,019 from work monthly typically do not qualify for SSI.
Social Security payment schedule: Why some Florida recipients will get extra checks in May
As of April 2025, 543,098 Floridians received SSI payments according to an SSA report. Of those, 160,173 were 65 years old or older, and 382,925 were visually impaired or disabled. In March, 241,362 seniors received SSI payments.
A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in Social Security is meant to help people keep their purchasing power from being eroded by inflation. The COLA for 2026 won't be determined until October since it relies on inflation data from the third quarter, which is collected between July and September.
However, analysts tracking data leading up to it suggest that Social Security checks could increase by 2.4% next year.
If accurate, that's down from this year's bump of 2.5% and the 2024 COLA of 3.2%. Overall consumer prices increased 2.3% from a year earlier, down from a 2.4% rise the previous month, according to the Labor Department's consumer price index, a measure of average changes in goods and services costs.
People ages 65 and up are the only group that has seen an annual increase in poverty since 2020, according to the Census Bureau's supplemental poverty measure report. In 2023, 14.2% of seniors were in poverty, up from 14.1% the prior year, 10.7% in 2021 and 9.5% in 2020, the Census Bureau said. It's also the highest percentage since 2016's 14.5%, according to reports from USA TODAY.
"The Social Security Administration has been very open and honest that if action isn't taken soon, they may not be able to provide full benefits to retirees down the road," Mike Lynch, retirement planning expert and managing director of Applied Insights at Hartford Funds, said in 2024. "Our elected leaders need to take action."
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida ranks 4th in US for dependency on Social Security, study says
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