Growing Number of Workers Retire Early, Involuntarily

While many Americans expect to work longer to improve their retirement outcomes, unplanned retirements may throw a wrench in their plans, according to a study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement, a division of the Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America.

While 53% of retiree respondents said they retired on time, 42% said they retired earlier than planned, commonly for reasons out of their control. Meanwhile, only 5% of respondents said they retired later than expected.

Last month, the Employee Benefits Research Institute’s 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey yielded similar results to Allianz’s study: 46% of retirees reported retiring earlier than planned, up from 40% who said the same last year. Another 48% of retirees said they retired about when they planned, down from 54% year-over-year. The remaining 6% retired later than planned, the same proportion recorded last year.

Despite the growth of early retirements, the proportion of EBRI’s pre-retiree respondents expecting to retire at age 70 or older or to never retire grew to 39% from 30% the previous year—signaling potential misalignment between expectations and reality.

“When retirement comes early, it can quickly turn a solid plan into a fragile one,” said Kelly LaVigne, Allianz Life’s vice president of consumer insights, in a statement. “That’s because fewer working years and more retirement years can put significant pressure on savings—especially when early retirement isn’t a choice.”

Reasons for Retirement

Respondents to Allianz’s study who retired early most commonly said health issues that impacted job performance drove them to do so (30%). Likewise, the most prevalent reason EBRI’s respondents reported retiring early was a health problem or disability (41%), up 10 percentage points from the share that retired for that reason last year.

According to Allianz’s survey, the most common reasons working respondents said they would retire early were wanting to spend more time with family (36%), becoming financially ready earlier than expected (32%) and wanting to reduce stress (31%). However, among early retirees, only 21% reported retiring sooner than expected because they were financially ready to do so. EBRI found that 36% of early retiree respondents cited their financial readiness, down from 44% in 2025.

Job loss was another key reason retirees reported they stopped working sooner, with 21% of retiree respondents to Allianz’s survey claiming to have done so because of job loss. Among working respondents, 35% said they would likely decide to retire if they lost their job in the next six months, including 58% of Baby Boomers, 29% of Generation X—and even 30% of Millennials.

Given the data related to early retirement, workers’ worries reflected the growing trend. Many workers (59%) said they worried they would not be able to retire on their own terms, and more than half (54%) said they worry that potential cognitive decline would be detrimental to their ability to work as long as they had hoped.

Allianz fielded its study in January among 1,000 workers and retirees age 25 or older.

EBRI conducted its survey from January 2 through 28 among 2,544 Americans, split roughly evenly between workers and retirees.