What Will Happen To Social Security When The Boomers Begin To Die Out?

The fate of Social Security under the current Trump administration — and newfound Department of Government Efficiency — is looking increasingly precarious. Between numerous Social Security offices closing and Elon Musk toying with the idea of making even more funding cuts (to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars to the program) current and future beneficiaries are understandably concerned about the program's future. However, with these headline grabbing issues gaining an increasing amount of coverage, many might be overlooking another equally pertinent issue when it comes to the future of Social Security: What will happen to the program when boomers begin to die out?

That's right, the post-WWII population, born between the years of 1946 to 1964, aren't going to be around forever. It's important to realize that, according to the latest National Center for Health Statistics data, the average lifespan of Americans in 2022 was 77.5 meanwhile baby boomers range from 61 to 79 years old in 2025. At the same time, the Social Security Administration has announced that they project the program's combined trust funds to be effectively depleted by 2035. This leaves many beneficiaries wondering what will happen to the program once these funds are depleted, as well as future generations should expect when their time to retire inevitably comes. That said, let's take a deeper look at the future possibilities.

With Social Security trust funds depleting in 2035, baby boomers may very well become the last generation to actually receive 100% of the benefits they are owed. If there is no congressional intervention before then, beneficiaries will only receive 83% of their entitled benefits at that time, declining to 73% by 2098. A significant part of this future financial cliff is tied to just how large the baby boomer generation is. Not only are baby boomers roughly 76 million people strong, but by 2026, every single one of them will be able to qualify for some form of Social Security benefits. 

Another factor is that the population of Americans aged 62 and older is set to become larger than the actual younger working population of the country today — affecting the program's beneficiary-to-worker ratio — thanks to declining birth rates. This has increased the cost of Social Security faster than the payroll tax income the program receives. Baby boomers first started to become eligible for retirement around 2008, and Social Security spending was roughly 4.8% of the country's GDP as of 2010, according to the Economic Policy Institute. However, as of December 2024, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation found that Social Security spending was up to 5.2% of GDP and on track to hit 6.1% by 2098. That said, once the baby boomer generation passes away and is no longer receiving benefits, can the program financially recover?

You might be wondering — if the government knew all along that an influx of baby boomers retiring would cost them a lot of money to fund, why didn't they prepare adequately? You might be surprised to learn the government actually did. In fact, the entire Social Security system ran at a surplus, up until 2021. So although the funds may be depleted by 2035, the government will still have largely been able to fully fund the retirement of all baby boomers by that point. The younger half of the generation will likely also start to pass away by then, which will similarly help to ease the financial strain on the government.

That said, once the baby boomer generation has passed away entirety, Social Security spending by the federal government is expected to experience a significant decline. After all, since there will be no more baby boomers left to issue Social Security payments to at that point, the government will hopefully be able to start collecting a sufficient amount of tax revenue to support the retirement of Gen X and Millennial generations. It is also still possible for Congress to prevent the full depletion of Social Security funding before 2035 comes around — or alternatively, for certain Trump policies to actually speed up Social Security's funding cliff.