Social Security Disabled Worker Applications for Disability Benefits & Benefit Awards
In the table below, we show the number of applications for Social Security disability benefits from people who are applying on their own earnings record (hence the term "disabled workers"). The applications do not include those from disabled widow(er)s or disabled children, and they do not include applications from individuals applying only for Supplemental Security Income payments.
Those workers who applied for a disability benefit and were ultimately awarded one are represented in the column "Number of awards." Those who were denied either did not meet our definition of disability or were not insured for disability benefits.
Note that the column "Awards as a percent of applications" is simply the ratio of awards in a year to the number of applications in the same year. It does not represent the percentage of applications in a year that were ultimately awarded a benefit.
[Numbers in thousands]
| Calendar year | Number of applications |
Number of awards |
Awards as a percent of applications |
Awards per 1,000 insured workersa |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | 529.3 | 253.5 | 47.9 | 4.7 |
| 1966 | 544.5 | 278.3 | 51.1 | 5.1 |
| 1967 | 573.2 | 301.4 | 52.6 | 5.4 |
| 1968 | 719.8 | 323.2 | 44.9 | 5.7 |
| 1969 | 725.2 | 344.7 | 47.5 | 4.9 |
| 1970 | 869.8 | 350.4 | 40.3 | 4.8 |
| 1971 | 923.9 | 415.9 | 45.0 | 5.5 |
| 1972 | 947.5 | 455.4 | 48.1 | 5.9 |
| 1973 | 1,067.5 | 491.6 | 46.1 | 6.2 |
| 1974 | 1,330.2 | 536.0 | 40.3 | 6.6 |
| 1975 | 1,285.3 | 592.0 | 46.1 | 7.0 |
| 1976 | 1,232.2 | 551.5 | 44.8 | 6.4 |
| 1977 | 1,235.2 | 568.9 | 46.1 | 6.5 |
| 1978 | 1,184.7 | 490.8 | 41.4 | 5.5 |
| 1979 | 1,187.8 | 440.5 | 37.1 | 4.7 |
| 1980 | 1,262.3 | 420.3 | 33.3 | 4.3 |
| 1981 | 1,161.2 | 381.0 | 32.8 | 3.8 |
| 1982 | 1,019.8 | 336.1 | 33.0 | 3.3 |
| 1983 | 1,019.3 | 428.5 | 42.0 | 4.1 |
| 1984 | 1,036.7 | 410.0 | 39.5 | 3.9 |
| 1985 | 1,066.2 | 416.1 | 39.0 | 3.9 |
| 1986 | 1,118.4 | 424.9 | 38.0 | 3.9 |
| 1987 | 1,108.9 | 420.3 | 37.9 | 3.8 |
| 1988 | 1,017.9 | 415.3 | 40.8 | 3.7 |
| 1989 | 984.9 | 430.7 | 43.7 | 3.7 |
| 1990 | 1,067.7 | 472.1 | 44.2 | 4.0 |
| 1991 | 1,208.7 | 540.8 | 44.7 | 4.5 |
| 1992 | 1,335.1 | 642.1 | 48.1 | 5.3 |
| 1993 | 1,425.8 | 637.4 | 44.7 | 5.2 |
| 1994 | 1,443.8 | 631.9 | 43.8 | 5.1 |
| 1995 | 1,338.1 | 645.6 | 48.3 | 5.2 |
| 1996 | 1,279.2 | 624.3 | 48.8 | 4.9 |
| 1997 | 1,180.2 | 587.7 | 49.8 | 4.6 |
| 1998 | 1,169.3 | 608.4 | 52.0 | 4.6 |
| 1999 | 1,200.1 | 620.6 | 51.7 | 4.7 |
| 2000 | 1,330.6 | 621.3 | 46.7 | 4.6 |
| 2001 | 1,498.6 | 690.5 | 46.1 | 5.0 |
| 2002 | 1,682.5 | 750.0 | 44.6 | 5.4 |
| 2003 | 1,895.5 | 777.5 | 41.0 | 5.5 |
| 2004 | 2,137.5 | 795.8 | 37.2 | 5.6 |
| 2005 | 2,122.1 | 829.7 | 39.1 | 5.8 |
| 2006 | 2,134.1 | 803.8 | 37.7 | 5.5 |
| 2007 | 2,190.2 | 818.5 | 37.4 | 5.6 |
| 2008 | 2,320.4 | 890.4 | 38.4 | 6.0 |
| 2009 | 2,816.2 | 987.6 | 35.1 | 6.6 |
| 2010 | 2,935.8 | 1049.3 | 35.7 | 7.0 |
| 2011 | 2,878.9 | 1019.1 | 35.4 | 6.8 |
| 2012 | 2,824.0 | 983.6 | 34.8 | 6.6 |
| 2013 | 2,653.9 | 888.1 | 33.5 | 5.9 |
| 2014 | 2,536.2 | 811.0 | 32.0 | 5.4 |
| 2015 | 2,427.4 | 775.7 | 32.0 | 5.1 |
| 2016 | 2,321.6 | 744.3 | 32.1 | 4.9 |
| 2017 | 2,179.9 | 762.1 | 35.0 | 5.0 |
| 2018 | 2,073.3 | 733.9 | 35.4 | 4.8 |
| 2019 | 2,015.2 | 723.9 | 35.9 | 4.7 |
| 2020 | 1,838.9 | 648.1 | 35.2 | 4.1 |
| 2021 | 1,800.4 | 572.0 | 31.8 | 3.6 |
| 2022 | 1,789.6 | 543.4 | 30.4 | 3.4 |
| 2023 | 1,904.6 | 561.6 | 29.5 | 3.5 |
| a Figures subject to revision. |