The retirement fund assets of the 22 nations with the largest retirement savings rose by 4.9% year on year in 2024, reaching a record $58.5 trillion collectively in defined benefit and defined contribution plans, fueled by the growth of DC funds, according to the Thinking Ahead Institute’s latest Global Pension Assets Study.
The U.S. remains the biggest retirement market with a 65% share of assets. When combined with the next three largest markets of Japan, Canada and the U.K., these four regions equated to 82% of all global retirement assets.
There is also an estimated value of $3 trillion to $5 trillion in retirement savings worldwide outside of the 22 markets that were assessed in the survey.
According to the Thinking Ahead Institute, defined contribution now accounts for 59% of total assets, compared to just 40% in 2004. This shift is being driven by DC plans having higher exposure to growth assets, which has seen DC assets grow by 6.7% per year since 2014, while defined benefit assets grew at a slower pace of 2.1% per year.
The Australian market has experienced high levels of growth, with the size of assets having increased by nearly 500% since 2004. Should its current growth trajectory be maintained, it could become the second-largest retirement fund market globally by 2030.
When assessing growth rates in local currency in the major markets, the U.K. was the only country in the study to exhibit negative annual growth over the past year, at -0.7%. The U.K. also recorded the slowest growth among the seven countries with the most retirement assets over the past 10 years, with its global share of assets declining from 8.8% of the 22 markets in 2014, to 5.4% in 2024.
“The rise of defined contribution becomes more pronounced every year that we conduct this study. While global pension assets continue to reach new record levels, it is those markets with larger pools of DC assets that are the main engine behind this continued growth,” said Jessica Gao, director at the Thinking Ahead Institute.
“As the size of these asset pools continues to increase, we are seeing increased influence by governments towards pension funds, primarily through regulation, which has expanded in line with both the size and growing significance of pensions in society.”
Regulations seen in the last year include Australia, where updated regulations will allow superannuation funds to introduce product features such as moneyback guarantees, and the ongoing Mansion House reforms in the U.K. which represent an attempt to get more pension fund investment in domestic private markets.
More than 90% of the assets of the 22 markets that were assessed in the survey were located in seven countries: Australia, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.
