About 7.36 million people are on SSI as of February 2026, according to the Social Security Administration’s Monthly Statistical Snapshot. Total federal spending on those payments came to roughly $5.7 billion that month, and the average individual check was $735.91. Supplemental Security Income is funded from general tax revenue and goes to people who are aged, blind, or disabled with very limited income and assets.
The headline count has been drifting down for a decade, and the composition of who receives SSI looks different from what many people assume. Disability, not old age, is the main path in.
Aged vs. Blind and Disabled
SSI recipients fall into two eligibility tracks. About 1.14 million people qualify under the Aged category, meaning they are at least 65 with limited income and resources. The far larger group, roughly 6.09 million, qualifies under the Blind and Disabled category by meeting the SSA’s medical criteria for a qualifying impairment. Disability accounts for about 84 percent of everyone on the program.
One distinction matters here. The Aged category is not the same as everyone on SSI who happens to be 65 or older. People who qualified through disability before 65 keep that classification after their birthday. They stay counted as blind or disabled, not aged.
Recipients by Age Group
The 7.36 million total splits into three age groups with very different situations behind their payments.
- Children under 18: roughly 1.02 million minors receive SSI for qualifying disabilities. When a child turns 18, the SSA conducts a disability redetermination using adult medical criteria, and some lose eligibility at that point.
- Adults 18 to 64: the largest group, at about 3.84 million people. Many qualified after a serious injury, chronic illness, or mental health condition that prevents substantial work.
- Adults 65 and older: about 2.51 million recipients. This group mixes people who entered through the Aged category with people who originally qualified through disability and aged into this bracket.
So while SSI is often described as a program for older Americans, roughly two-thirds of recipients are under 65, and more than a million are children.
Recipients by State
State-level enrollment broadly tracks population, but four states carry outsized shares. As of December 2024, California has by far the most SSI recipients at about 1.11 million. Texas follows with roughly 577,000, then New York at about 560,000, and Florida at approximately 541,000. Together those four states account for more than a third of everyone on SSI nationally.
The concentrations reflect population size along with poverty rates, disability prevalence, and each state’s age profile.
People Receiving Both SSI and Social Security
About 2.52 million people receive SSI and Social Security at the same time. That’s roughly one in three SSI recipients. This overlap happens when someone has enough work history to qualify for a Social Security retirement or disability check, but the amount is small enough that they still fall under SSI’s income limits.
For these recipients, the Social Security payment counts as unearned income and reduces the SSI amount. After a $20 general income exclusion, the remaining Social Security income is subtracted from the Federal Benefit Rate. Someone receiving a $300 Social Security check would have $280 in countable unearned income, reducing SSI from $994 to $714.
How the Total Has Changed
SSI enrollment peaked at roughly 8.16 million in 2014. The program has lost about 800,000 recipients since then. Several factors explain the decline: fewer new applications, an increase in medical continuing disability reviews that remove people who no longer meet the criteria, and, during 2020 and 2021, a spike in recipient deaths alongside pandemic-related drops in new applications.
The approval rate for initial disability applications has also tightened. In fiscal year 2023, about 37 percent of initial applications were approved, and that figure dipped to roughly 36 percent in fiscal year 2025. These numbers cover both SSI disability claims and Social Security Disability Insurance claims at the initial level. Most first-time applicants are denied, and many who eventually receive benefits do so only after filing an appeal.
What the Average Recipient Actually Gets
The maximum federal SSI payment for 2026 is $994 per month for an eligible individual and $1,491 for an eligible couple, reflecting a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment that took effect in January. Very few recipients get the full amount. The SSA reduces payments dollar-for-dollar based on countable income, after applying exclusions like a $20 general income exclusion and a $65 earned income exclusion. That’s why the average check across all 7.36 million recipients is $735.91 rather than $994.
For context, the 2026 federal poverty guideline for a single person is $15,960 per year, or $1,330 per month. Even the maximum federal SSI payment falls about 25 percent short of that line, and the average payment covers barely 55 percent of it. Most states add their own supplemental payment on top of the federal amount, which narrows the gap for many recipients, though the size of that supplement varies widely by state. A handful of states and territories, including Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia, provide no state supplement at all.
To qualify for SSI in the first place, countable resources cannot exceed $2,000 as an individual or $3,000 as a couple. Resources include bank accounts and investments but exclude a primary home and usually one vehicle. Those asset limits have not been updated in decades.