Relative Importance of Income Sources of the Aged

Information on the relative importance of various sources of income for the aged in 1067 is available from recent tabulations of the 1968 Survey of the Demographic and Economic Characteristics of the Aged (DECA) .l From them one can answer such questions as how many beneficiaries aged 65 and over had at least half their income from social security benefits or how many of the aged had almost all their income from earnings. In addition, this information is useful in measuring how important retirement benefits are for the aged and whether other sources, such as earnings or public assistance, merely supplement retirement benefits or provide a major portion of their income. often has more income sources than an individual, particularly when one of the spouses is younger than age 65. Figures are also presented separately for nonmarried men and nonmarried women because the amount of their income tends to differ considerably. In general, however, nonmarried men and nonmarried women differed little with respect to the relative importance of their sources of income.