More retirement savers boosted their savings rates last year than ever before, according to a preview of Vanguard Group’s upcoming new edition of its How America Saves report.
In 2024, almost half of defined contribution retirement plan participants (45%) increased their deferral rates, up from 43% in 2023 and 39% in 2022. Deferral rates are the amount savers set aside from their paychecks.
Almost 1 in 5 (16%) increased their deferrals on their own, with the remaining 29% bumping up their rates as part of automatic annual increases, according to the report teaser released March 5.
Account balances also hit an all-time high, averaging $148,153 at the end of 2024, up 10% year over year.
Other records were broken by retirement plan sponsors, with 61% adopting automatic enrollment, up from 59% in 2023.
Of the plan sponsors that implemented automatic enrollment, 61% used default deferral rates of 4% or higher, in line with the 60% that did so last year.
The upcoming How America Saves 2025 report, to be released in June, is based on retirement plan data from nearly 5 million defined contribution plan participants across Vanguard’s record-keeping business.
