Money may not buy happiness, but it can buy a longer life

By Jessica Hall

Older adults with the fewest financial resources die much earlier than those with more wealth

The percentage of older adults in poverty rose to 15% in 2024, up from 14.2% the previous year and representing the highest poverty rate among all age groups, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Wealth represents more than just social status in America - it can also mean the difference between life and death.

Older adults with the fewest financial resources die nine years earlier, on average, than those with the greatest wealth, according to a report by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the LeadingAge LTSS Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

"It is shocking and unacceptable that in the United States in 2025, poverty steals almost a decade of older Americans' lives," said Ramsey Alwin, chief executive and president of the NCOA. "Millions of older Americans who worked hard and played by the rules are dying early simply because they don't have sufficient financial resources."

In 2022, an older adult with total household income of $19,560 had a mortality rate of 21% and an average age of death of 76. That compared to a total household income of $120,000 and a mortality rate of 10.7% and an average age of death of 85, the NCOA and LTSS Center researchers found.

"Too many older adults are living on the edge financially, and this instability is literally cutting their lives short," said Marc Cohen, co-author of the report and co-director of the LTSS Center.

Read: Agency for older adults and people with disabilities to be shuttered under HHS cuts

The researchers analyzed data between 2018 to 2022 from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal panel study that surveys a representative sample of 10,000 households in the U.S.

"This bad news on class-based longevity keeps getting worse," said Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of economics and policy analysis at the New School in New York City, and an expert on retirement. "Time is our most equal inheritance at birth, compared to wealth or income. Yet ... the class gap in longevity has grown to nine years - the widest ever recorded."

While the report did not pinpoint the causes for earlier death, other research has found that people with higher socioeconomic backgrounds generally have better preventative healthcare due to their income, better education and access to health insurance.

The NCOA and LTSS Center's report comes as more older adults are falling into poverty. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of seniors in poverty rose to 9.9% in 2024 from 9.7% the year before. Using a broader measure that counts a wider range of living costs, older adults in poverty rose to 15% from 14.2% the previous year, representing the highest poverty rate among all age groups.

"The overall trend is that poverty has gone up year over year for older adults, and it's the only age group that has experienced this," said Jessica Johnston, senior director of the National Council on Aging's Center for Benefits Access. "Even if you're not in poverty, you may not be able to afford preventative services."

More than 19 million older households, or 45%, 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 older households age 60 and older, are unable to weather a major shock such as widowhood, serious illness or the need for long-term care without falling into poverty, according to research by the NCOA and LTSS Center

The COVID-19 pandemic deepened financial and health risks for older Americans, particularly those in the lower wealth brackets. The crisis led to massive job cuts, including 1.2 million adults age 65 and older who lost jobs from March to April of 2020, as did another 2.4 million people ages 55 to 64, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health-policy firm. Re-entering the workforce became difficult for many of those older workers, Johnston noted.

From 2018 to 2022, the wealthiest 20% of older adults saw substantial gains in assets, while the majority of older households experienced little to no improvement in financial security, according to the NCOA and LTSS Center's report.

Looking ahead, the report said that the financial picture for older adults looks more bleak amid cuts to Medicaid and imposed work requirements that could push millions off benefit assistance, further straining low- and middle-income households.

"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%," according to the report.

"I hope this shed light on the crisis. It's not about a small population - it's about 34 million older adult householders who are an emergency away from poverty," Johnston said. "We don't have social safety nets in place to catch that many people."

Read: Medicare users could soon lose perks they love - like choosing their own doctor

Read: Why fewer seniors are expected to enroll in Medicare Advantage next year - and opt for original Medicare instead

-Jessica Hall

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10-08-25 1048ET