Methodology & Data Sources

Primary Data Source

PlainPension is powered by the Public Plans Database (PPD), a collaboration between the Boston College Center for Retirement Research (CRR) and the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA). The PPD is the most comprehensive longitudinal database of US public pension plans, compiled from annual financial reports (CAFRs) and actuarial valuations submitted by plans.

PPD data is available at publicplansdata.org under its own research terms. PlainPension uses the PPD release represented in its database; it does not independently ingest Form 5500 records or every underlying plan filing.

Source Release Monitor

PPD publishes interim quarterly updates as financial reports become available, while the newest fiscal year can vary by plan. We check the source's release history and API on a recurring 90-day clock rather than claiming a fixed annual release date.

Last upstream check

2026-07-23

Latest release recorded in the monitor

2025-11-17 (PPD 2025 Q4 archive entry)

Next scheduled source check

2026-10-21

Update route

We fetch a fresh official snapshot, validate the data and vintage, rebuild affected pages, and publish only after the checks pass.

See the PPD release history and API documentation for the publisher's current availability information.

To report a possible error, read the corrections process or email the editorial process.

Coverage

Our database tracks 197 major US public pension plans covering state and large local government employee retirement systems. These plans collectively cover over 31.2 million active public employees and retirees combined, representing the majority of total US public pension assets and liabilities.

Small local government plans not included in the PPD are not covered by PlainPension.

Key Metrics Explained

• Funded Ratio: Actuarial assets divided by actuarial accrued liabilities (AAL). A ratio of 100% means a plan has exactly enough assets to cover all promised benefits. Below 80% is generally considered underfunded; below 60% is severely underfunded. Funded ratios use the plan's own actuarial assumptions.
• Unfunded Liability: The dollar gap between actuarial assets and the actuarial accrued liability (AAL - assets). This represents the amount a plan is short of fully funding its promises.
• Investment Return: Annualized return on pension fund investments. 1-year returns reflect recent market conditions; 5-year returns provide a longer-term picture.
• ARC Payment Rate: Whether the sponsoring government is paying its Actuarially Required Contribution (ARC). Plans where governments consistently underpay the ARC tend to see funded ratios deteriorate over time.

Financial Health Grades

PlainPension assigns each plan a financial health grade based on a composite of its funded ratio, 5-year investment return relative to assumed rate, and ARC payment history. Grades are intended as a quick reference; full financial analysis requires reviewing a plan's CAFR and actuarial valuation directly.

Processing Pipeline

We process the PPD release represented in our database through the following steps:

• Extracting plan-level financial data including actuarial assets, accrued liabilities, investment returns, and employer contribution rates from the applicable PPD release
• Computing funded ratios, unfunded liabilities, and ARC payment compliance from the source financial variables
• Assigning financial health grades based on a composite scoring model (funded ratio, investment return performance, and contribution discipline)
• Building state-level aggregations that summarize pension health across all plans in each state
• Generating multi-year trend data from PPD's longitudinal records going back to 2001

No financial data is fabricated or modified. All base figures come directly from the PPD as compiled from plan CAFRs and actuarial valuations. Where we compute derived metrics (health grades, state aggregates), the methodology is documented on this page.

Historical Data

The PPD contains annual data from 2001 to the most recent completed fiscal year. We display trend charts showing funded ratio changes over time, enabling users to see whether a plan's financial position is improving, stable, or deteriorating. This longitudinal perspective is essential because pension funding is a multi-decade obligation, a single year's funded ratio can be misleading without historical context showing the trajectory.

Limitations

• Funded ratios use each plan's own actuarial discount rate. Plans using higher assumed rates show better-looking funded ratios; economists often argue market-value liability measures would show lower funded ratios industry-wide.
• PPD updates are released as reporting becomes available; individual plan records can lag the latest fiscal year. The source-release monitor above records when PlainPension last checked for a newer upstream release.
• The PPD covers major public pension plans only, smaller local government retirement systems, deferred compensation plans, and OPEB (other post-employment benefit) plans are not included.
• Health grades are simplified indicators. A complete assessment of any pension plan's financial health requires reviewing its full CAFR and actuarial valuation.
• PlainPension provides informational data only and does not provide financial advice or retirement planning guidance.

Editorial Workflow

PlainPension's 197 plan and state pages are generated programmatically from a single documented source, the Public Plans Database (Boston College CRR / NASRA). The same template renders every page so all 197 plans are covered consistently; we do not hand-author or individually re-review each plan page. The editorial effort goes into the data pipeline (how records are sourced, normalized, and computed), the methodology, and the written guides, which are drafted and reviewed by the editorial process before publication. Source data is loaded directly from the PPD, never invented or interpolated. We do not accept payment for coverage, placement, or grades, the health-grade composite and rankings are computed directly from PPD data.

Not Affiliated

PlainPension is not affiliated with the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, NASRA, the Department of Labor, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), any state pension plan administrator, or any government agency or pension plan. We are an independent data portal presenting Public Plans Database data in a more accessible format.

Reuse and Citation

PlainPension's plan and state pages are freely citable, link back to the specific page you drew a figure from (funded ratios and grades are updated as new PPD releases land, so a linked page stays current in a way a static screenshot doesn't). The underlying PPD data itself is published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College under its own research license, if you need the raw dataset for bulk reuse rather than a single citation, go to publicplansdata.org directly; PlainPension isn't the rights-holder and can't re-grant PPD's terms. Each plan and state page carries structured Dataset markup identifying it as a distinct data source.

Frequently Asked Questions