The average U.S. retirement age has climbed to 61, up from 57 two decades ago, and it's likely to age higher, according to Gallup's Economy and Personal Finance survey.
The average non-retired American now plans to retire at 66, up from 60 in 1995, according to the Gallup survey.
"Because most of the uptick came before the 2008 recession, this shift may reflect more than just a changing economy," Gallup's associate editor Alyssa Brown wrote in her report on the study. "It may also indicate changing norms about the value of work, the composition of the workforce, the decrease in jobs with mandatory retirement ages, and other factors."
The trend to retire older started in the 1990s, said Richard Johnson, the director of Urban Institute's Program on Retirement Policy.
"I think this trend is one of the most important changes we've seen in the labor force in the last quarter of a century," Johnson said. "I think it's a really positive development. A lot of people are working longer because they want to work longer. The incentives to work longer have increased."