MAY 29, 2025 — Public pensions in the nation totaled nearly $6 trillion in 2024, according to the Annual Survey of Public Pensions (ASPP) released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The ASPP provides revenues, expenditures, financial assets, and membership information about defined-benefit public pension systems. Defined-benefit plans provide a specified benefit in retirement.

A separate unit file provides detailed actuarial data for state and locally administered defined-benefit public pension systems. (Actuarial data shows how systems act today, to pay tomorrow’s benefits.)

• State and local governments in 2024 invested $5.99 trillion in short- and long-term assets in pension plans, up 9.24% from $5.48 trillion in 2023.
• More than 36 million people (including inactive employees not currently contributing to pensions but eligible for future benefits) participated in state and local retirement plans in 2024.
• Employees contributed 75.77% and the government contributed (on behalf of employees) 24.2% of the total $305.79 billion invested in state and local government retirement plans in 2024.
• State and local government pension plans in 2024 provided $405.45 billion in benefit payments to beneficiaries (retirees as well as their spouses or dependent children), up 9.26% from $386.67 billion in 2023.

Statistics are available at the national level and for individual states. State and locally administered defined benefits are also available.

Visit the Annual Survey of Public Pensions webpage for more information.

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