VERSION 2 · FEDERAL PUBLIC-DATA SPINE
An independent national view built around Census public-use data, with BEA, Federal Reserve, BLS, and plan records kept in their proper lanes. Funding, cash flow, and liquidity are related—but they are not interchangeable.
Census observations describe reported public-pension activity. BEA and Federal Reserve figures are standardized economic estimates. Plan financial statements remain the authority for a specific system.
LATEST RELEASE · VERSION 2
Version 2 reorganizes the dashboard around the 2025 Census Annual Survey of Public Pensions, adds a benefit-to-contribution pressure measure, separates BEA operating cash flow from audited plan liquidity, and introduces a versioned metric-definition registry.
RELEASE ALERTS
Occasional alerts only. Reading and downloading the dashboard remains open to everyone.
01
Annual Census spine
The 2025 Annual Survey of Public Pensions was released May 14, 2026. It covers state- and locally administered defined-benefit systems and includes national, state, and unit-level files.
$6.49T
Up 8.46% from $5.98 trillion in 2024. This is an asset stock, not a measure of available cash.
37M+
Includes inactive employees who are not currently contributing but remain eligible for future benefits.
$315.02B
Governments supplied 75.17%; employees supplied 24.83% of the reported 2025 total.
$418.25B
Payments to retirees and other beneficiaries, up 3.40% from $404.46 billion in 2024.
Sampling guardrail
Census uses survey weights outside Census of Governments years. National estimates can be reproduced from the public-use files, while individual-system views must distinguish observed units from population estimates. We do not present a 2025 list as every U.S. plan.
02
Cash flow & maturity
Benefit payments exceeded employer and employee contributions in the Census 2025 totals. That is a maturity signal—not proof of a cash deficit, because investment income and other flows also matter.
1.33×
$418.25B of benefits ÷ $315.02B of contributions.
The $103.23B difference is not a total cash deficit. It excludes investment income, asset sales, capital calls, distributions, changes in cash holdings, and other flows.
Layer 1 · Census
A transparent maturity measure using reported contributions and benefit payments. It does not claim to measure total liquidity.
Layer 2 · BEA
Actual employer and household contributions plus monetary interest and dividends, less benefits, withdrawals, and administrative expenses.
Layer 3 · Audited records
Cash and liquid assets, benefit calendars, capital calls, distributions, and unfunded commitments. This layer is published only when plan records support it.
03
Funding & assumptions
Plan-reported, Census-derived, and standardized economic measures serve different purposes. The toggle makes the basis—and the limits—visible before comparison.
PLAN / CENSUS VIEW
Fiduciary net position (RP01) ÷ total pension liability (RP15)
A reproducible plan-level calculation from the current Census unit-file definitions. It stays labeled GASB-style and is not silently substituted for a plan's actuarial funded ratio.
Valid only when the release-vintage dictionary, source codes, edit/imputation flags, and units have passed validation.
STRESS & ASSUMPTIONS
These fields appear only after a plan record and its vintage pass validation. No national stress result is inferred from incomplete units.
RP05Current discount ratePlan-specificRP16Current net pension liabilityPlan-specificRP18NPL at discount rate −1 pointPlan-specificRP19NPL at discount rate +1 pointPlan-specificRP03 ÷ RP02Contribution adequacyPlan-specificRP08Annual money-weighted returnPlan-specific04
Quarterly & workforce context
Quarterly series provide timely national context. They do not replace annual Census unit files or a plan's audited and actuarial records.
A
Federal public-use dataRevenues, expenditures, and asset composition for a fixed panel of 100 of the largest public defined-benefit systems. Use it for direction and market movement—not a count of all plans.
Current QSPP release ↗B
Federal public-domain sourceThe Financial Accounts standardize DB assets, pension entitlements, and sponsor claims. These are economic estimates—not plan-reported actuarial funded ratios.
Financial Accounts guide ↗C
Federal public-domain source$8.22BLS estimate for state and local government workers in March 2026. Defined-contribution retirement averaged $0.60 per hour in the same table.
BLS employer-cost table ↗Visible methodology break
The change lowers standardized liabilities and raises standardized funded ratios. Movement across 2022 is therefore not purely a change in pension finances.
05
Metric-definition registry
Each metric records the source field, accounting basis, valuation date, observed/estimated/derived status, revision vintage, rights class, methodology breaks, and comparison limits.
READ THE NUMBERS CORRECTLY
The permanent data spine now prioritizes federal public-use files and direct agency releases. Association research remains supplementary and clearly labeled.
Those states are never collapsed. Census source and imputation codes remain part of any plan-level record.
Every metric records its reference period, release date, retrieval date, and revision status.
Plan, GASB, BEA, and Federal Reserve concepts can answer different questions even when labels look similar.
Private-market calls, distributions, commitments, and usable cash are not nationally standardized. We wait for primary records.
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Federal public-use data, public-domain sources, plan records, dashboard calculations, and published research are tagged separately.
SUPPLEMENTARY RESEARCH
Version 1 summarized published findings from the 2026 NCPERS Public Retirement Systems Study. Version 2 does not use that association report as its permanent quantitative spine; it remains linked as contextual research.
View the NCPERS study page ↗