Income Shapes How Americans Feel About Aging

Results from a recent survey from the Pew Research Center shed a light on the inequalities in the way older Americans feel about aging. As the think tank points out, around one in five adults in the U.S. today (18 percent) is aged 65 and over, and the way they experience becoming older is majorly shaped by income.

As our infographic shows, while more than six out of ten of the older Americans with upper incomes surveyed (61 percent) said they were aging extremely or very well, only 39 percent of the lower-income people polled felt the same way. Lower-income Americans were much more likely to say they were aging not too well or not well at all: 13 percent, compared to only 5 percent of those with middle or upper incomes.

Those with upper incomes were also almost twice as likely as those with lower incomes to consider their physical health excellent or very good (49 percent vs. 26 percent). The same phenomenon was observed for mental health: 73 percent of those with higher incomes considered theirs excellent or very good, as opposed to 45 percent of those with lower incomes.

These inequalities are far from surprising: Americans with higher incomes are much more likely than those with lower incomes to benefit from a good health insurance, and they can afford to invest much more in their retirement savings. According to data published in June by asset management firm Vanguard, the average balance of employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k)s among workers making between $100,000 and $149,999 a year was four times higher than for workers making between $30,000 and $49,999.