Americans do not know what it takes to be financially secure in retirement, according to the results of a survey by the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

Of the 1,213 pre-retirees ages 56 to 65 who took the 15-question survey, the majority answered only five of the questions correctly, illustrating that there are misperceptions in a number of core areas, including life expectancy, inflation, retirement income/savings, long-term care insurance and Social Security, the report found.

Respondents of the 2011 MetLife Retirement Income IQ survey, for the most part, recognized that people are living longer and will be dependent on Social Security and other steady lifetime income for their prolonged retirement. An increased number of respondents believe Social Security and Medicare are more important compared with five years ago; and 45 percent of those surveyed said they are likely to work longer than previously planned. Only 17 percent knew that delaying the collection of Social Security by three years would add 24 percent to the amount they receive, the survey found.