Pensions at a Glance 2021

Assets in retirement savings plans and public pension reserve funds

Key results

Substantial pension assets have been provisioned around the world. Assets in retirement savings plans amount to as much as the sum of the GDPs of all OECD countries at end‑2020. More than 20 OECD countries have also built up public pension reserves to support the operation of their public pension arrangements. For these countries, assets in public pension reserve funds (PPRFs) represented 14% of GDP in total at end‑2020.

Assets in retirement savings plans amounted to USD 54.1 trillion at end‑2020 in the OECD area. The United States had the largest pension market within the OECD member countries with assets worth USD 35.5 trillion, representing 65.6% of the OECD total. Other OECD countries with large pension systems include the United Kingdom, with assets worth USD 3.6 trillion and a 6.6% share of OECD pension market in 2020; Canada, USD 3.1 trillion and 5.7%; the Netherlands, USD 2.1 trillion, 3.9%; Australia, USD 1.8 trillion and 3.3%; and Japan, USD 1.6 trillion and 2.9%.

Pension assets in the OECD amount to as much as the sum of the GDPs of all OECD countries at end‑2020, but their prominence domestically varies across countries. In three countries, assets exceeded more than twice the size of the GDP: Denmark (229.4%), the Netherlands (212.7%) and Iceland (206.9%). Six additional OECD countries achieved asset-to-GDP ratios higher than 100% – Canada (179.7%), the United States (169.9%), Switzerland (167%), Australia (131.7%), the United Kingdom (126.8%) and Sweden (108.9%). These countries have private pensions from long ago, and most of them have mandatory or quasi-mandatory private pension systems. By contrast, the asset-to-GDP ratios were below 20% in 16 OECD countries, including some with relatively recent mandatory or automatic enrolment programmes (such as Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) or with relatively low coverage of the working-age population (such as France, Greece, Italy). Greece recorded the lowest amount of assets relative to its GDP among OECD countries (below 1%).

In non-OECD G20 economies, the size of pension assets also varied widely, from 92.1% in South Africa to 2% of GDP in Indonesia (for employer pension funds and financial institution pension funds).

Many countries also decided to accumulate assets in order to support the operation of public pension arrangements, usually financed on a pay-as-you-go basis. More than 20 OECD countries hold reserves that are separated and ring-fenced in public pension reserve funds (PPRFs). By the end of 2020, the total amounts of assets in PPRFs were equivalent to USD 6.8 trillion in the OECD area. The largest reserve was held by the US social security trust fund at USD 2.8 trillion, accounting for 41.5% of total OECD assets in PPRFs, although the assets consist of non-tradable debt instruments issued by the US Treasury to the social security trust. Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund was second at USD 1.7 trillion – 25.3% of the OECD total. Of the remaining countries, Korea, Canada, France and Sweden had also accumulated large reserves, respectively accounting for 11.7%, 6.5%, 2.8% and 2.5% of the total.

In terms of total assets relative to the national economy, PPRF assets accounted for 13.9% of the GDPs of all OECD countries with reserves at end‑2020. The highest ratio was observed for the Korean National Pension Fund with 45.1% of GDP. Other countries where the ratio was of a significant size include Finland with 33.6%, Luxembourg with 33.6%, Japan with 33% and Sweden with 31.8%. The expansion of these pools of assets are forecast to continue over the coming years in some countries (such as Canada, Japan and New Zealand) but assets in some other PPRFs have started or will fall in the near future (such as in France (FRR) and Spain). Belgium that used to have a PPRF (Zilverfonds) closed it in 2017, while Ireland converted its own (the Irish National Pension Reserve Fund) into a sovereign wealth fund (Ireland Strategic Investment Fund) in 2014, with a broader mandate than financing pay-as-you-go pension plans.

Definition and measurement

The term “retirement savings plans” refers to private pension arrangements (funded and book reserves) and funded public arrangements (e.g. ATP in Denmark).

Private pension plans are pension plans administered by an institution other than general government. They may be administered directly by a private‑sector employer acting as the plan sponsor, a private pension fund or a private sector provider. In some countries, these may include plans for public-sector workers.

Funded public arrangements are pension plans that are managed by a public institution.

PPRFs are reserves established with the primary goal to support unfunded / pay-as-you-go public pension arrangements. They could act as a short-term liquidity buffer, a temporary buffer against shocks (such as a demographic change) or as a permanent smoothing vehicle between the inflows and outflows of public pension arrangements.

Table 9.2. Assets in retirement savings plans and public pension reserve funds in OECD countries and other major economies, in 2020 or latest year available

As a percentage of GDP and in USD million

	Retirement savings plans		Public pension reserve funds
	as a percentage of GDP	USD million	as a percentage of GDP	USD million
Australia	131.7	1 794, 300	8.2	110 571
Austria	6.6	30 634	x	x
Belgium	40.4	223 702	x	x
Canada	179.7	3 081 679	25.6	438 314
Chile	75.8	208 482	4.4	10 787
Colombia	32.0	93 053	..	..
Costa Rica	36.9	21 657	..	..
Czech Republic	9.5	25 347	x	x
Denmark	229.4	882 109	x	x
Estonia	21.8	7 170	x	x
Finland	64.1	186 741	33.6	97 939
France	12.2	344 114	6.7	186 400
Germany	8.2	338 469	1.2	45 492
Greece	1.0	2 016	x	x
Hungary	5.6	8 922	x	x
Iceland	206.9	47 842	x	x
Ireland	35.5	162 459	x	x
Israel	68.9	300 489	17.0	73 253
Italy	12.7	256 417	5.4	107 828
Japan	30.1	1 564 587	33.0	1 714 783
Korea	31.7	560 037	45.1	795 652
Latvia	19.5	7 004	x	x
Lithuania	9.5	5 723	1.6	959
Luxembourg	2.9	2 246	33.6	23 943
Mexico	22.8	264 022	0.2	1 965
Netherlands	212.7	2 088 702	x	x
New Zealand	34.1	80 111	13.5	28 272
Norway	12.3	49 398	7.5	26 366
Poland	7.9	48 934	2.5	15 209
Portugal	22.0	54 606	8.5	19 898
Slovak Republic	14.4	16 192	x	x
Slovenia	8.0	4 605	x	x
Spain	14.5	199 627	0.2	2 419
Sweden	108.9	663 486	31.8	171 626
Switzerland	167.0	1 331 372	6.2	46 702
Turkey	3.4	23 069	x	x
United Kingdom	126.8	3 593 710	1.8	47 282
United States	169.9	35 491 205	13.4	2 811 716
Total OECD	99.9	54 064 238	13.9	6 777 376
Argentina	..	..	12.8	41 649
Brazil	28.2	404 028	x	x
China	2.2	344 259	2.9	447 239
India	9.3	249 050	..	..
Indonesia	2.0	21 701	..	..
Russian Federation	6.1	87 489	x	x
Saudi Arabia	..	..	..	..
South Africa	92.1	312 355	x	x

Note: “..” means not available. “x” means not applicable. The line “OECD” shows the total assets in millions of USD and the total assets over the total of the GDPs of all reporting OECD countries.

Source: OECD Global Pension Statistics, websites and annual reports of reserve funds or other national authorities.

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