Is the number of immigrants a significant effect on the financing of Social Security, and if so is it taken into account when the projected deficit date is produced?
Yes, the number of immigrants has a significant impact on Social Security. The actuaries do include immigration rates in their projections. According to the 1998 Trustees Report prepared by the actuaries, the Social Security cost rate (the ratio of the cost of the program to the taxable payroll for the year) decreases with increasing rates of net immigration, due to the fact the immigrants are usually relatively young and thus increase the number of covered workers earlier than the number of beneficiaries.
