To provide current data on state and local government public-employee retirement
systems. The United States Code, Title 13, authorizes this survey and provides
for voluntary responses. All state and local government employee-retirement systems providing defined
benefit plans in the U.S. Local governments include counties, cities, townships,
special districts, and school districts. Data are obtained on contributions from employees and employers, benefit and
other payments, total assets and investment holdings, membership, and monthly
beneficiary payments. Data collection and processing begin in mid-October and continue for about
8 months. Reported data are for each public-employee retirement system’s
annual accounting period that ends on or before June 30 of the survey year.
Data for individual retirement systems were first collected in the 1957 Census
and have been collected annually since 1959. Prior to 1957 some retirement variables
were collected as a part of the State and Local Government Finance Survey. Compilation of data from an enumeration of all state government retirement
systems and a survey of selected local government retirement systems (or of
all 2,435 local retirement systems for census years, years ending in “2”
and “7”). A new sample is usually selected every 5 years, the most
recent one being a probability proportional to size sample selected in fiscal
year 2004. It was designed to produce estimates for Local as well as State and
Local Retirement systems with a relative standard error of 3 percent or less
on the following categories: receipts by source, payments, financial holdings,
membership, and benefit payments. State and local government public-employee retirement reports and data files
are available about 10 months after the survey year. Tables provide summary
data on financial activities covering state and local, state-only, and local-only
governments. Retirement reports include receipts by source, payments, financial
holdings, membership, and benefit payments. In addition, downloadable files
provide data in more detail for individual governments. The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses the data as a primary source for updating
its measures of the government sector of the National Income and Product Accounts.
The Federal Reserve Board uses the data as a primary source for its Flow of
Funds Accounts. State and local governments use the data to assess their financial
condition and to make peer-government comparisons. Provides the most current data about investment decisions by public-employee
retirement systems, which are among the largest types of institutional investors
in U.S. financial markets. EXPLORE INFORMATION CONTINUE OVERVIEW
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT PUBLIC - EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT SYSTEM SURVEY
PURPOSE
COVERAGE
CONTENT
FREQUENCY
METHODS
PRODUCTS
USES
SPECIAL FEATURES
RELATED PROGRAMS
Quarterly Public-Employee
Retirement Systems Survey
Annual Public Employment
Survey
Annual Survey of State
and Local Government Finances