Pension plans play a vital role in ensuring financial stability for retirees, amassing trillions of dollars in assets worldwide to support aging populations. To explore the state of global pension wealth, we’ve visualized the data based on January 2025 figures from Global SWF.
Key Insights:
Public pension plans are a cornerstone of retirement and disability benefits for workers. These plans are often governed by public sector laws and typically operate as defined benefit (DB) plans, where employees contribute a portion of their earnings and later receive monthly benefits during retirement. These benefits are calculated based on a formula, typically a percentage of the worker’s average salary during their peak earning years.
Below is a ranking of countries by their public pension assets:
| Rank | Country | Public Pension Assets ($B) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇺🇸 USA | $11,760 |
| 2 | 🇯🇵 Japan | $2,066 |
| 3 | 🇨🇦 Canada | $1,804 |
| 4 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | $1,131 |
| 5 | 🇦🇺 Australia | $1,121 |
| 6 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | $948 |
| 7 | 🇬🇧 UK | $610 |
| 8 | 🇨🇳 China | $588 |
| 9 | 🇩🇰 Denmark | $569 |
| 10 | 🇸🇪 Sweden | $489 |
| 11 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | $413 |
| 12 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | $349 |
| 13 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | $318 |
| 14 | 🇮🇳 India | $305 |
| 15 | 🇫🇮 Finland | $256 |
| 16 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | $241 |
| 17 | 🇩🇪 Germany | $224 |
| 18 | 🇫🇷 France | $218 |
| 19 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | $187 |
| 20 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | $149 |
| 21 | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | $137 |
| 22 | 🇳🇴 Norway | $117 |
| 23 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | $107 |
| n/a | 🌍 Other | $913 |
Key Takeaways:
USA holds the largest share of pension wealth globally, with $11,760 billion in public pension assets.
Japan boasts the largest pension fund in the world, the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), with a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds, and was established in 2006 following pension system reforms.
Top U.S. Pension Funds include the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB), managing the Thrift Savings Plan, and California’s Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), which focus on state public sector employees.
This global snapshot of pension wealth offers valuable insight into how countries are preparing for the retirement needs of their populations, and highlights how nations with large pension funds can play a significant role in global financial markets.
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