By Leada Gore
al.com
(TNS)
The Senior Citizen League’s predicted 2027 cost-of-living adjustment of 3.5% would rank 19th among the increases implemented since 1977, the first year Social Security began calculating the annual boost.
The last COLA, announced in 2025 and implemented in 2026, tied for 27th.
The highest COLA on record was 14.3% in 1980, followed by 11.2% in 1981 and 9.9% in 1979. By law, benefits cannot decrease, but if inflation is flat, no COLA is implemented. No COLA was issued in 2010, 2011 or 2016.
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- 1975 – 8%
- 1976 – 6.4%
- 1977 – 5.9%
- 1978 – 6.5%
- 1979 – 9.9%
- 1980 – 14.3%
- 1981 – 11.2%
- 1982 – 7.4%
- 1983 – 3.5%
- 1984 – 3.5%
- 1985 – 3.1%
- 1986 – 1.3%
- 1987 – 4.2%
- 1988 – 4%
- 1989 – 4.7%
- 1990 – 5.4%
- 1991 – 3.7%
- 1992 – 3%
- 1993 – 2.6%
- 1994 – 2.8%
- 1995 – 2.6%
- 1996 – 2.9%
- 1997 – 2.1%
- 1998 – 1.3%
- 1999 – 2.5%
- 2000 – 3.5%
- 2001 – 2.6%
- 2002 – 1.4%
- 2003 – 2.1%
- 2004 – 2.7%
- 2005 – 4.1%
- 2006 – 3.3%
- 2007 – 2.3%
- 2008 – 5.8%
- 2009 – 0%
- 2010 – 0%
- 2011 – 3.6%
- 2012 – 1.7%
- 2013 – 1.5%
- 2014 – 1.7%
- 2015 – 0%
- 2016 – 0.3%
- 2017 – 2%
- 2018 – 2.8%
- 2019 – 1.6%
- 2020 – 1.3%
- 2021 – 5.9%
- 2022 – 8.7%
- 2023 – 3.2%
- 2024 – 2.5%
- 2025 – 2.8%
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