Plan Data | Public Plans Data

Georgia ERS Basics

Established 1949
Currently open to new hires
Plan covers state employees
Plan members covered by Social Security
Multiple employer, cost sharing plan

Assets, Participants, and Benefits

State and local government pension benefits are paid from trust funds to which public employees and their employers contributed while they were working, not from general operating revenues. Trust fund assets are invested and grow over time. The combined value of defined benefit plan assets held by state and local governments as of Q2 2022 decreased to $5.3 trillion, from $5.7 trillion as of Q2 2021 (Federal Reserve Flow of Funds, June 2023). PPD data covers the period from 2001 to the most recently available plan reports, and the historical charts presented in this page mirror the period for which PPD data are available.

Assets at Year-End, Georgia ERS, 2001-2022

Fiscal Year	Net Assets (billions)
2001	12.34
2002	11.56
2003	11.70
2004	12.40
2005	12.83
2006	13.03
2007	14.36
2008	13.17
2009	10.63
2010	10.96
2011	12.34
2012	11.63
2013	12.23
2014	13.29
2015	12.97
2016	12.37
2017	13.10
2018	13.52
2019	13.62
2020	13.50
2021	16.55
2022	13.83

Source: Public Plans Database

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

State and local employees make up around 10-15 percent of the US workforce. About a quarter of public sector workers are covered by a public pension in lieu of Social Security, including nearly half of all teachers and over two-thirds of firefighters and public safety officers. Public employees live in every city and county in the nation; more than 90 percent retire in the same jurisdiction where they worked. PPD data covers the period from 2001 to the most recently available plan reports, and the historical charts presented in this page mirror the period for which PPD data are available.

Number of Actives per Annuitant, 2001-2022

Fiscal Year	Georgia ERS	US State and Local Pensions
2001	2.9	2.4
2002	2.6	2.3
2003	2.6	2.2
2004	2.4	2.1
2005	2.3	2.1
2006	2.3	2.0
2007	2.2	2.0
2008	2.1	1.9
2009	1.9	1.9
2010	1.8	1.8
2011	1.6	1.7
2012	1.5	1.6
2013	1.4	1.5
2014	1.3	1.4
2015	1.3	1.4
2016	1.2	1.4
2017	1.2	1.4
2018	1.2	1.3
2019	1.1	1.3
2020	1.1	1.3
2021	1.0	1.2
2022	1.0	1.2

Source: Public Plans Database

National data averages are weighted by plan size.

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

2022 Membership for Georgia ERS

Actives	Beneficiaries	Total Membership
52,526	54,378	113,697

Source: Public Plans Database

Costs

The Annual Required Contribution (ARC) is the amount needed to finance benefits accrued each year, plus the cost to amortize unfunded liabilities from past years, minus required employee contributions. It is a projection that matches a yearly payment amount to a particular amortization period, taking into consideration an assortment of assumptions adopted by the plan. In practice, all plans do not calculate the ARC in the same manner. Assumptions used to calculate the ARC reflect actual plan experience, including investment return , actuarial cost, salary growth, total payroll growth and mortality, as well as an adopted amortization method. These assumptions and methods will differ from one plan another, so caution should be taken when comparing ARC between plans. PPD data covers the period from 2001 to the most recently available plan reports, and the historical charts presented in this page mirror the period for which PPD data are available.

Employer's Annual Required Contribution as a Percentage of Payroll and Portion Paid for Georgia ERS, 2001-2022

Fiscal Year	Portion of Employer ARC paid	US Avg Employer ARC	ARC as a Percent of Payroll
2001	13.2	5.3	13.2
2002	9.7	5.2	9.7
2003	9.9	6.0	9.9
2004	10.0	7.7	10.0
2005	9.7	9.6	9.7
2006	9.8	9.9	9.8
2007	10.1	10.6	10.1
2008	10.2	11.0	10.2
2009	10.5	11.0	10.5
2010	10.2	11.6	10.2
2011	10.5	13.4	10.5
2012	11.4	14.0	11.3
2013	15.4	15.1	15.3
2014	18.6	15.6	18.5
2015	22.0	16.1	22.0
2016	25.0	16.1	25.0
2017	24.6	16.4	24.5
2018	24.8	18.8	24.7
2019	24.9	17.8	24.9
2020	24.6	19.5	24.6
2021	24.8	19.6	24.9
2022	24.1	19.9	24.1

Note: The employer's annual required contribution as a percent of payroll is calculated by dividing the dollar amount reported in the schedule of employer contributions by the covered payroll reported in the schedule of funding. The U.S. Average Employer data reflects the average for plans of similar type and social Security coverage to the plan.

Source: Public Plans Database

National data averages are weighted by plan size.

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Actuarial Funding

While funded ratios among pension plans vary substantially, in the aggregate, public pension funding levels rose steadily during the 1990s, due largely to strong returns in global equity markets. Since then, sharp market downturns in 2000-02 and 2008-09 negatively affected asset values and increased unfunded pension liabilities and required contributions. A combination of the market downturns, insufficient contributions (for some plans), and increased benefit levels (also for some plans) resulted in a decline in aggregate funding level between 2001 and 2012, and has since remained relatively stable.

Actuarial Funded Ratio for Georgia ERS, 2001-2022

Fiscal Year	Georgia ERS	National Data
2001	101.7	101.7
2002	101.1	94.8
2003	100.5	89.0
2004	97.6	87.2
2005	97.2	85.4
2006	94.5	85.3
2007	93.0	86.3
2008	89.4	84.4
2009	85.7	78.4
2010	80.1	75.7
2011	76.0	74.3
2012	73.1	72.3
2013	71.4	71.9
2014	72.8	73.2
2015	74.1	73.2
2016	74.7	71.6
2017	74.7	72.1
2018	75.3	72.4
2019	75.6	72.5
2020	73.8	72.7
2021	71.6	76.2
2022	72.2	77.1

Source: Public Plans Database

National data averages are weighted by plan size.

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Investments

The major asset allocation classes presented in the PPD are generated from the specific asset classes that plans report. For consistent reporting in the PPD, the individual asset classes reported by plans are categorized as one of eight major asset classes: equity, fixed income, real estate, private equity, hedge funds, commodities, misc. alternative assets, cash, and other. For more details on the PPD allocation data please see documentation.

Asset Allocation for Georgia ERS, 2022

Category	Percent
Equities	59.5
Fixed Income	37.2
Private Equity	3.3
Real Estate	0.0
Cash	0.0
Other	0.0
Commodities	0.0
Hedge Fund	0.0
Misc. Alternatives	0.0

Source: Public Plans Database

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Asset Allocation for State and Local Pensions, 2022

Category	Percent
Equities	42.7
Fixed Income	20.8
Private Equity	13.0
Real Estate	10.2
Cash	2.1
Other	0.6
Commodities	2.3
Hedge Fund	6.5
Misc. Alternatives	1.8

Note: The most recent year of data contains virtually all the plans in the PPD.

Source: Public Plans Database

National data averages are weighted by plan size.

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Asset allocation for Georgia ERS, 2001-2022

Fiscal Year	Equities	Fixed Income	Private Equity
2001	57.0	43.0	0.0
2002	54.1	45.9	0.0
2003	51.5	48.5	0.0
2004	58.9	41.1	0.0
2005	59.6	40.4	0.0
2006	58.6	41.4	0.0
2007	59.5	40.5	0.0
2008	55.6	44.4	0.0
2009	52.3	47.7	0.0
2010	59.4	40.6	0.0
2011	67.2	32.8	0.0
2012	65.9	34.1	0.0
2013	68.1	31.9	0.0
2014	67.2	32.8	0.0
2015	65.3	34.7	0.0
2016	62.3	37.7	0.0
2017	63.9	36.1	0.0
2018	61.9	36.9	1.2
2019	61.1	37.1	1.8
2020	60.9	37.1	2.0
2021	63.2	34.5	2.3
2022	59.5	37.2	3.3

Source: Public Plans Database

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Annual Return as of June 30 for Georgia ERS, 2001-2022

Fiscal Year	Georgia ERS	Assumed return
2001	-6.02	7.00
2002	-4.00	7.00
2003	4.50	7.25
2004	9.80	7.50
2005	7.80	7.50
2006	6.20	7.50
2007	14.70	7.50
2008	-3.50	7.50
2009	-13.00	7.50
2010	10.99	7.50
2011	21.29	7.50
2012	2.19	7.50
2013	13.33	7.50
2014	17.29	7.50
2015	3.74	7.50
2016	1.40	7.50
2017	12.40	7.40
2018	9.20	7.30
2019	6.90	7.30
2020	5.48	7.30
2021	29.36	7.20
2022	-11.71	7.20

Note: The PPD average is for plans with a similar fiscal year end (FYE) date to the plan presented on this page. The FYE date for the majority of plans is either June 30th or December 31st. Those with FYE dates that do not fall on either of those two dates are compared with the June 30th plans. The PPD average return includes plans that report gross returns and returns net of fees.

Source: Public Plans Database

National data averages are weighted by plan size.

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Annualized 5-Year Return

Georgia ERS	PPD Sample
7.1	7.8

Annualized 10-Year Return

Georgia ERS	PPD Sample
8.3	8.5

Cash Flows

Cash Flow vs. Total Assets (Millions)
Georgia ERS
2001-2022

Fiscal Year	Cash Flow	Assets
2001	-161.9	12,343.6
2002	-296.9	11,558.4
2003	-349.4	11,697.6
2004	-417.1	12,396.4
2005	-501.5	12,825.1
2006	-566.0	13,033.9
2007	-630.9	14,362.4
2008	-712.0	13,167.8
2009	-815.4	10,626.1
2010	-846.5	10,956.3
2011	-890.2	12,335.4
2012	-938.7	11,628.5
2013	-896.5	12,227.8
2014	-860.0	13,291.5
2015	-797.7	12,968.0
2016	-735.7	12,373.6
2017	-750.9	13,098.3
2018	-739.6	13,517.2
2019	-773.1	13,617.5
2020	-819.0	13,502.3
2021	-798.0	16,547.9
2022	-861.8	13,830.5

Source: Public Plans Database

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

2022 Cash Flows for Georgia ERS (millions)

Inflows	Outflows	Investment Gains (losses)	Change in Net Assets
655.9	1,517.7	-1,855.6	-2,717.4

Source: Public Plans Database

Note: The PPD average is for plans with a similar fiscal year end (FYE) date to the plan presented on this page.

Cash Flow as a Percentage of Assets
Georgia ERS
2001-2022

Fiscal Year	Georgia ERS	National Average
2001	-1.3	-2.0
2002	-2.6	-2.4
2003	-3.0	-2.6
2004	-3.4	-1.8
2005	-3.9	-2.2
2006	-4.3	-2.2
2007	-4.4	-2.0
2008	-5.4	-2.2
2009	-7.7	-3.1
2010	-7.7	-3.2
2011	-7.2	-3.0
2012	-8.1	-3.2
2013	-7.3	-3.1
2014	-6.5	-2.9
2015	-6.2	-2.7
2016	-5.9	-2.9
2017	-5.7	-2.8
2018	-5.5	-2.4
2019	-5.7	-2.4
2020	-6.1	-2.3
2021	-4.8	-2.0
2022	-6.2	-1.9

Note: The PPD average is for plans with a similar fiscal year end (FYE) date to the plan presented on this page.

Source: Public Plans Database

National data averages are weighted by plan size.

Download chart data

Embed chart on your website

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

2022 Financial Reports

Benefits

Website for Georgia ERS benefit descriptions.

Advanced Search

Plan Data: Georgia ERS

Georgia ERS Basics

Assets, Participants, and Benefits

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

2022 Membership for Georgia ERS

Costs

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Actuarial Funding

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Investments

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

Annualized 5-Year Return

Annualized 10-Year Return

Cash Flows

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

2022 Cash Flows for Georgia ERS (millions)

Copy this code into your HTML Editor, Blog Post or CMS.

2022 Financial Reports

Benefits

Contact information (OPTIONAL)