1 in 5 Americans don't think they'll ever retire, study finds

Americans differ widely in terms of when they expect to retire, from their 30s to deep into old age. Now a fifth of the population has another answer: Never.

Twenty percent of U.S. adults don't think they'll ever retire, according to a new study by the news website Axios and the market research firm Ipsos. Of those respondents, 70% said this was because they don't think they could ever afford to stop working.

"To have 1 in 5 Americans feeling like they'll never be able to retire is a pretty stark number," said Sarah Feldman, a senior data journalist at Ipsos. "I think it really highlights how dire some of the financial and retirement landscape is for many Americans."

The study surveyed 1,238 Americans aged 18 or older in what Ipsos called a "nationally representative" sample. When asked when they thought they'd leave the workforce, "I don't think I'll ever retire" was the third-most common response, after age 65 or older (33%) and "I have already retired" (26%).

To some financial advisors, this result was not surprising. Ron Strobel, founder of Retire Sensibly in Meridian, Idaho, said many of his clients and friends view leaving the workforce as too big a leap of faith.

"Retirement is a big unknown, and some people simply aren't willing to accept the risk," Strobel said. "As financial planners, we can help provide clarity, but ultimately there's always the risk that something goes wrong."

This cautiousness dovetails with a broader trend: Over the past three decades, Americans have been retiring later and later in life. From 1991 to 2022, the country's average retirement age rose from 57 to 61, according to the polling company Gallup. The think tank American Enterprise Institute found that the age had inched up even higher, from 62.6 in 1990 to 65.6 2019.

In particular, the past few years have been a difficult time to retire. In June 2022, U.S. inflation rose to a four-decade peak of 9.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (though it's eased down to 3% since then), devaluing many seniors' savings. Meanwhile, last year's rocky stock market battered many retirement portfolios, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones all suffering their worst year since 2008.

For many Americans, all of this has added up to a sense that retirement may never be feasible. 

"The No. 1 reason … is they don't think they'll be able to afford it," Feldman said. "So it's really finances driving that sense of not being able to reach retirement."

One of those financial concerns was about Social Security. Of the Ipsos respondents who had not yet retired, 62% expected the New Deal-era program to cover less than half of their expenses in retirement.

That concern may turn out to be well founded. According to the Social Security Board of Trustees' latest report, the program's trust fund for Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance — the part that benefits retirees — is expected to go insolvent in 2034. At that point, Social Security would only be able to pay out 77% of its scheduled benefits.

Last-minute actions from Congress could still save the program from that fate, but many Americans still don't feel safe relying on it.

"One of the most pressing matters right now is the uncertain future of Social Security and Medicare funding," Strobel said. "After watching the student loan forgiveness debacle, I'm definitely not looking forward to the debates and possible court cases over 'fixing' Social Security and Medicare when the time comes."

Read more: Many Americans are 'forced' into early retirement, study finds

But for other Americans, there's also another, more positive reason not to retire: They don't want to. According to Ipsos, 19% of the respondents who never expected to retire simply preferred to keep working.

Some financial advisors found this trend familiar as well.

"I have many clients who never want to retire," said Jeremy Finger, founder of Riverbend Wealth Management in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. "They want to do the work they love. For some, that means going part-time at their current job and only doing the parts they like … For others, it could be an entirely different type of job, like volunteering, taking care of grandchildren or working for a low-stress job part-time."

Strobel said several of his clients fit this pattern. Some work in real estate, which affords them flexible hours and big commissions for part-time work. Another example, he said, is a family friend who works for a government contractor, producing night vision goggles and other devices for the military.

"He is of retirement age, but has zero desire to retire anytime soon because he simply loves his job," Strobel said. "He has a high level of autonomy at work and basically works in a giant warehouse full of the latest technology and gadgets … There's nowhere else he could find such an exciting way to fill his day."