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North Dakota

Overview

The North Dakota Public Employees’ Retirement System is one of two state retirement system in North Dakota. The other state retirement system is the Teachers’ Fund for Retirement (TFFR). NDPERS participants include state employees and employees of political subdivisions that have elected to participate.

The North Dakota State Investment Board is responsible for investing assets of the PERS and the TFFR, as well as assets of some local pension funds and state and local trust and endowment funds.

Plan Design

Most North Dakota public employees participate in a defined benefit plan except those who have elected to participate in an optional defined contribution plan, available since 2000; this defined contribution plan is mandatory, in lieu of the defined benefit plan, for new PERS hires since January 1, 2025 who are not peace officers, judges, or members of the Highway Patrol.

According to the US Government Accountability Office, 95 percent of employees of state and local government in North Dakota participate in Social Security.

Access plan design detail

Authorizing Statutes and Board Structure

The North Dakota Century Code Title 54, Chapter 52 establishes the ND PERS.

The Teachers Fund for Retirement is established by Century Code Title 15, Chapter 39.

Century Code Title 21, Chapter 10 establishes the State Investment Board.

Details regarding the composition of these and other retirement boards is accessible via the Retirement and Investment Board Characteristics search tool located at the bottom of this page.

Fiduciary Duty/Prudence Standard

North Dakota Century Code Title 21, Chapter 10, Section 7
The state investment board shall apply the prudent investor rule in investing for funds under its supervision. The "prudent investor rule" means that in making investments the fiduciaries shall exercise the judgment and care, under the circumstances then prevailing, that an institutional investor of ordinary prudence, discretion, and intelligence exercises in the management of large investments entrusted to it, not in regard to speculation but in regard to the permanent disposition of funds, considering probable safety of capital as well as probable income. The retirement funds belonging to the teachers' fund for retirement and the public employees retirement system must be invested exclusively for the benefit of their members and in accordance with the respective funds' investment goals and objectives.

Legal Protections of Retirement Benefits

No explicit constitutional protection and not much recent caselaw. Courts will likely protect against the impairment of contract rights. Payne v. Board of Trustees of the Teachers' Ins. & Retirement Fund, 35 N.W.2d 553 (N.D. 1948) (recognizing that public pension plan is not a gratuity and rather gives rise to binding contractual rights and obligations upon satisfaction of all conditions); Quam v. City of Fargo, 43 N.W.2d 292 (N.D. 1950) (same); Klug v. City of Minot, 795 N.W.2d 906 (N.D. 2011) (home rule city had the authority to combine police pension with city employee pension plan; defined benefit plan consists of a general pool of assets of which a plan member is entitled to a fixed periodic payment upon retirement not a claim to any particular assets). (ND CONST., Article X, §12) Source: Robert Klausner, Esq., State Constitutional Protections for Public Sector Retirement Benefits
 

See also the following search tools:

Retirement System Account Interest Policies Economic Actuarial Assumptions Retirement and Investment Board Characteristics
Information about interest rates applied to account balances of inactive plan participants Assumed rates of investment return and inflation Composition and characteristics of public retirement and investment oversight boards
Mortality Assumptions Plan Design Features Post-retirement Employment Policies
Public retirement system actuarial assumptions for mortality Numerous elements of retirement plan design Policies governing return-to-work for retirement system annuitants

More Data

Flag of North Dakota (November 9, 1943)

Population (2025) 799,358

North Dakota public pension statistics, per U.S. Census Bureau as of FY 2025

Assets

$9.2 billion

Active Members

38,495

Annuitants

26,881

Benefits Paid

$653.3 million

Employee Contributions

$223.8 million

Employer Contributions

$348.7 million

Systems

Two state systems accounting for 93 percent of public pension assets and 96 percent of public pension plan participants in the state. There are eight systems in the state sponsored by local governments.

Other Resources


Become A Member

Becoming a member of NASRA offers a unique opportunity to join a community committed to the sound, efficient, and innovative stewardship of public retirement systems. Membership connects you with a network of professionals and experts, providing valuable insights into managing public retirement systems with a focus on sustainability and risk-averse strategies.

By joining NASRA, you gain the tools and resources to enhance the management of public retirement systems, ensuring their long-term success and reliability for generations to come.

What's New at NASRA: Government Spending Issue Brief

NASRA’s March 2026 update on government spending makes a basic but important point: public pension benefits are not paid out of a government’s day-to-day operating budget. They are paid from trust funds that employees and employers contribute to during an employee’s working years. Those trusts distribute more than $400 billion each year to retirees and beneficiaries in communities across the country. On a national basis, employer contributions to pension trusts in FY 2023 equaled 5.16 percent of direct general spending by state and local governments, which shows that pension contributions remain a limited share of overall public spending even though the level varies from one state to another. 
The brief also shows that pension costs should be viewed in the context of the changes governments have made over the past 15 years to strengthen plan funding. Following the 2008–09 market decline, nearly every state and many local governments adjusted contributions, benefits, or both to improve pension sustainability. More recent data show that employer contributions increased from FY 2022 to FY 2023, but pension spending as a share of total government spending remained broadly stable. The updated brief provides FY 2023 figures and also projects the aggregate pension spending rate for FY 2024, offering a useful snapshot of both current costs and the longer funding trend.