Pennsylvania public pensions saw investment returns increase from $3.1 billion in 2023 to $3.3 billion in 2024, recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Public Pensions shows.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Public Pensions covers defined-benefit pension programs run by officially recognized government entities, enrolling public employees whose salaries are paid from public funds. The surveyed local governments include counties, municipalities, townships, school districts and special districts.
Survey findings include figures on income, expenditures, asset holdings and membership for each system, while extra survey questions sometimes address other financial markers such as liabilities.
Some respondents do not provide complete data for every question, and response rates fluctuate by data type, sometimes impacting which numbers appear in the official tables.
As of 2025, nine U.S. states do not have a comprehensive personal income tax—Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming—with unique circumstances for New Hampshire and Washington involving taxes on investment or capital gains.
Pennsylvania provided returns from 1,559 pension funds, which includes three at the state level and 1,556 at the local government level. There were a total of 1,037,670 members across these systems: 797,147 at the state level and 240,523 at the local level.
This article uses information reported by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Public Pensions. Full source data is available here.
