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NASRA Research Center

Search Tools Economic Indicators Public Pension Topics
NASRA Issue Briefs

and Papers and Analysis

 Public Fund Survey State Pages
Industry Resources and Reports Member Survey Results Roll Call
These search tools enable users to conduct searches by simply pointing and clicking on selected data elements. Access requires login and is limited to NASRA members. Some search tools are subsets of larger datasets. These tools are displayed beneath the corresponding parent dataset in the bullet list to show this relationship.
Retirement System Account Interest Policies Latest Investment Return & Inflation Assumptions Retirement System and Investment Board Required Qualifications
Mortality Assumptions Plan Design Features for new hires Post-retirement Employment Policies
Retirement Plan Type for New Hires Plan Design Features Comparative Latest Employee and Employer Contribution Rates (FY 24)
Amortization Policies Retirement System and Investment Board Composition Asset Valuation Methods
Updated annually, each brief addresses a key area of public retirement system administration and policy, supported by narrative, charts, and tables.
Cost-of-Living Adjustments - August 2025 Public Pension Plan Investment Return Assumptions - April 2026 **NEW** State and Local Government Spending on Public Employee Retirement Systems - March 2026 **NEW**
State and Local Government Contributions to Statewide Pension Plans: FY 24 - January 2026  Employee Contributions to Public Pension Plans - November 2025  State Hybrid Retirement Plans - September 2025 

A compendium of research covering a range of topics relevant to public retirement system administration and policy.

Historic and current data on public sector employment, compensation, revenue, and public pension asset values.

Information covering public pension issues like accounting, governance, and reforms.

Public Fund Survey Summary of Findings

An annual analysis of financial and demographic statistics about public retirement systems.

State Pages

Overview of each state’s retirement system characteristics, plan design, governance, investment structure and restrictions, and legal protections of benefits.

Selected Industry Resources and Reports

Resources and reports presenting public pension community information.

Member Survey Results

Results of surveys on retirement plan policies. Access to NASRA members only. 

Roll Call

Highlights notable events and developments in public retirement systems since 2005. Access to NASRA members only.


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.