Percentage of Americans that receive Social Security retirement benefits?

Anyone know the percentage of Americans that receive Social Security retirement benefits?

Public Comments

1. all the ones over 65 for sure.
2. Nearly 54 million Americans are now receiving Social Security retirement benefits. The USA population is around 307,006,550, so roughly 17.6% of the population is receiving SS payments. (One out of five retired couples and four out of ten unmarried individuals derive 90 percent or more of their income from Social Security.)
3. Correcting previous answers, many people wait as long as possible to start Social Security payments, certainly over 65. SSA keeps increasing your payment if you defer. A former answer said how many were getting Social Security payments, but that is NOT retirement benefits only. That includes disability, which can start in early adulthood, and payments for death of a parent that children get. Over 10 million people get social security as disabled workers and children or spouses of disabled workers. See www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/quickfacts/stat_snapshot/ for details.