Social Security COLA Projected at 3.6% for 2027, Marking Rare 30-Year Milestone

For the first time in thirty years, Social Security's cost-of-living adjustment is projected to reach 3.6 percent in 2027 — a figure that arrives not as simple good news, but as a mirror held up to an economy under unusual strain. AARP's forecast reflects inflationary pressures that have reshaped retirement security for millions of Americans, raising questions that outlast any single annual adjustment. The milestone invites a deeper reckoning with whether the mechanisms society built to protect its elders are still equal to the forces they were designed to meet.