PPD: Plans
The Public Plans Database (PPD) currently contains plan-level data from 2001 through 2023 for about 230 major state and local government pension plans — with about half of plans administered at a state level and half administered locally. This sample covers 95 percent of public pension membership and assets nationwide. The sample of plans is a carry-over from the Public Fund Survey (PFS), which was constructed with an eye toward the largest state-administered plans in each state, but also includes some large local plans such as New York City ERS and Chicago Teachers.
The PPD is updated quarterly from data available in the most recent financial reports. Intermediate updates may occur when new variables are added or data errors are corrected.
To conduct an in-depth analysis requiring full access to the database, download the full PPD.
Detailed documentation for the PPD.
PPD: Retirement Systems
The PPD includes data on the retirement systems that the pensions plans in the PPD are part of. Retirement system data are not included with plan level data because the data are organized by system rather than plan. System data span the same time as plan data and include information on system membership, income, and expenses.
Download Retirement System Data
Police and Fire Supplement
The Police and Fire Supplement to the PPD includes 50 police and fire plans (12 state plans and 38 local plans). The data span fiscal years 2001 to 2022, and includes many of the same variables included in the PPD. Combining the Police and Fire Supplement with police and fire plans in the PPD produces a database that includes all state-administered police and fire plans, as well as the largest locally-administered police and fire plans in each state.
See the PPD Codebook for variable descriptions.
Public Defined Contribution Plans
The public sector defined contribution plan dataset provides data on over one hundred public sector defined contribution plans. The data includes information on membership, assets, investment options, contributions, plan type, and plan provisions. It includes 401(a), 457, and 401(k) plans, in addition to cash balance plans. It includes both mandatory and optional plans, as well as a mix of both supplemental and primary defined contribution plans.
Download Defined Contribution Data
Download Defined Contribution Data Codebook
Detailed Investment Data
The major asset classes presented in the PPD are generated from the specific asset classes that plans report. The links below provide access to the raw investment data reported by plans, as well as a codebook describing the method for organizing the specific asset classes reported by plans into the major PPD asset classes.
Download Detailed Investment Data by Asset Class
Download Detailed Investment Data Codebook
Fixed Income: Credit Rating
Credit rating data provide the rating agency, credit rating, and total value (market and par) for each fixed income asset class held by public plans, as reported in each plan’s financial reports since 2005.
Download Detailed Credit Rating Data by Asset Class
Download Detailed Credit Rating Data Codebook
Fixed Income: Duration
The detailed bond duration data provide the average duration, duration method (e.g., Effective Duration or MacCauley Duration), and total value (market and par) for each fixed income asset class held by public plans, as reported in each plan’s financial reports since 2005. For plans that report the average maturity of fixed income holdings rather than the duration, the duration data are left blank and the observation is coded to signal that the plan does not report duration.
Download Detailed Bond Duration Data by Asset Class
Download Detailed Bond Duration Data Codebook
Investment Fees
This data includes the annual investment fees reported by public pension funds, by asset class, from 2005 to 2018. The data are based on the dollar value of investment fees reported in plan financial reports and investment documents – which may or may not capture all of a plan’s investment-related fees. Similar to other PPD investment data, asset class fees in the PPD are aggregates of the fees reported for all sub-asset classes that fall within the broader PPD asset class (see documentation for the specific sub-asset classes that fall within each PPD asset class).
Download Fee Data by Asset Class
Download Fee Data Documentation
Top Stock & Bond Holdings
Top holdings data provides details on the largest holdings of equity and fixed income for public plans. Equity data include the name and dollar amount for the ten largest equity securities. Fixed income data include the name, dollar amount, maturity year, and interest rate for the ten largest holdings. To provide a sense of investment concentration, the data also report top holdings as a share of total market assets (CRR-calculated).
Download Top Holdings Codebook
State and Local Disability
These data detail the disability benefits for 67 state and local programs (based on a survey of the 100 largest retirement systems in the PPD) and encompasses roughly 70 percent of all public sector workers that are not covered by Social Security. The data contain approximately 50 variables describing 1) when an employee becomes vested in the DI program; 2) what disabling conditions are covered; and 3) the level of benefits that eligible workers can receive. The data were gathered from the benefit handbooks and actuarial valuations published by the public sector retirement systems and reflect benefits across occupations for workers hired in 2020.
Governance and Board
The governance data in the PPD results from a survey of 68 State Retirement Systems (and the District of Columbia) covering actuarial practices, legislative requirements, how employee contribution rates are set, requirements for periodic audits and asset/liability studies, and whether or not formal training is required or conducted.
Currently, aggregate tabulations of responses are available for how the employee contribution rates are set, who is responsible for monitoring funding goals, and what types of fees are monitored.
Board data for PPD plans comes from the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA), and is supplemented by the CRR. It includes data on the size of each plan’s board, whether members are appointed or elected, and whether some members are plan members or ex-officio.
Return-to-Work Policies
This data set reflects postretirement employment policies for 82 public retirement systems in all 50 states. It includes information on who is eligible to return to work after retiring; rules and restrictions on postretirement employment; and exemptions set forth for general or specific employee groups. This material will be updated as statutes and retirement system policies addressing postretirement employment are modified.
View and Download Post-Retirement Employment Policy Data
Pension Payout Options
The pension payout options dataset provides details on the benefit payment options available to defined benefit and defined contributions participants at retirement, as well as policies for participants who leave before retirement. Information reflects the provisions for new employees hired in 2021 and is sourced from benefit descriptions in member handbooks and actuarial valuations.