Countries With the Most Pension Wealth in 2025 💸
What we’re showing
This graphic breaks down $25 trillion in global public pension assets, using Jan. 2025 data from Global SWF.
How do public pensions work? 🤔
Public pension plans provide retirement & disability benefits to workers, and are regulated by public sector law.
They're typically structured as defined benefit (DB) plans, meaning workers make mandatory contributions, then receive monthly benefits for the rest of their life after retiring.
The benefits one would receive is determined by a formula, which is typically a % of their average salary over their highest-earning years of work.
Challenges facing pensions
Pensions must invest their assets responsibly to ensure that they have sufficient cash flows to pay out member benefits. This is not an easy task due to trends like global aging, which is increasing the % of retirees.
According to a recent report by Equable Institute, public pensions across the U.S. had a funding shortfall of $1.6 trillion in 2023. This is driving plans to seek riskier investments, which could cause problems in the future.