For older Americans, the cost of poverty is 9 years of life, study finds

Wealth has long been tied to longevity in the U.S. and other countries, but a new analysis helps quantify the gap between how long low-income older Americans and their more affluent peers tend to live. 

Low-income people over 60 years old die an average of nine years earlier than high-income older Americans, according to the new study from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and University of Massachusetts Boston’s LeadingAge LTSS Center, which studies aging.

Generally, middle-income older Americans are also dying younger than wealthier people, the researchers founds. About 15% of seniors with annual household incomes of roughly $60,000 died during the four-year study period, compared with about 11% in households with incomes of around $120,000. 

“This is the first time we’ve tied health and wealth together — this was really shocking for me,” said Jessica Johnston, senior director of the NCOA’s Center for Economic Well-Being, of the nine-year life gap. “We all traditionally and culturally were taught to value our elders, and if we played by the rules we could age well, and I think that’s changing.”

The study is based on an analysis of data from 2018 to 2022 gathered through the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal panel study that tracks 10,000 households. NCOA, a nonprofit group based in Arlington, Virginia, advocates for older adults. 

The findings have implications for an aging society that has seen widening economic inequality, with the income gap between the richest and poorest households growing wider in recent decades, according to the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., as well as to other researchers. 

As the U.S. population ages, the divide between rich and poor is also reflected in the experiences of senior citizens, with many reaching retirement age without the financial resources to handle shocks like a health emergency or the loss of a spouse, the NCOA study found.

The difference in average mortality age by income could be due to a lack of preventative care for low-income seniors, an inability to pay for care as they age or the stress of financial instability, Johnston said. 

The poverty rate among U.S. seniors rose to 15% last year from 14% in 2023, the highest among all age groups, according to Census data.

“Older adults are placed into situations where they are going to have to make really difficult decisions: Am I going to go to the grocery store, am I going to pay rent or am I going to get my medication?” Johnston told CBS News. “It’s not only about forgoing one of those things, but it’s the added stress about those decisions.”

About 80% of people over 60 have few, or even zero, financial assets and would struggle to cope with a financial shock like the loss of a spouse or needing long-term care, according to the report. Most of those Americans will face financial insecurity in their later years, the researchers said. 

“If older adults can’t afford long-term care or can’t afford medicine, family members are often picking up that cost,” Johnston said. “The lost economic productivity among Gen Xers and millennials will play out over the next one to two decades.”