Boomers know they're getting older, but they don't want to believe they'll need long-term care at some point.

Only 36 percent of those surveyed by MetLife's Mature Market Institute knew that two-thirds of them will require such care after retirement age. About the same number knew they'd receive those services at home.

The nonprofit institute surveyed 1,021 people between the ages of 40 and 70 this year, but found the level of knowledge hadn't changed much in the past five years. The overall score on the quiz was 52 percent with only one in five people scoring higher than 70 percent.

This is pretty serious stuff. Seventy-eight million Americans are five years closer to retirement than they were in 2004, and many watched 30-40 percent of their life savings go down the drain when the market collapsed in 2008. Few will be able to recover those losses in time to pay for services in retirement.

Older Population
About 70 percent of those over 65 will need long-term care during their lives, a considerable number considering the percentage of the population at that age will jump to 20 percent by 2040 from about 13 percent today.

Even those with adequate savings may need help with long-term care expenses, which can easily rise into the thousands of dollars a month. Only 18 percent of those surveyed knew that long-term care insurance costs rise with age. Two-thirds didn't know what types of insurance or government programs paid for long-term care.