Countries With Biggest Pension Assets As a Percentage of GDP

Not every country has as much pension assets. In the table presented here constructed by Towers Watson the 13 countries with the biggest pension assets in the world are shown. These pension assets are the money that pension funds have for current and future retirees. On average these countries had in 2011 pension assets of 72% of GDP. The Netherlands had relatively the most pension assets: 133% of GDP. France had relatively the least from the 13 countries with the most pension assets in the world: 5% of GDP. The United States has nominally by far the most pension assets in the world: 16 trillion dollar.

For future retirees these assets can ofcourse grow larger given some return if these assets are invested. The next graph shows the allocation of the assets for the 7 countries that had the biggest pension assets in 2011. On average (world) these countries had their assets invested for 41% in equity, 37% in bonds, 20% in other and 2 percent they held in cash. The Anglo-Saxon countries had relatively more invested in equity compared to Japan, Netherlands and Switzerland. The Netherlands and Japan held a relatively high share of the assets in bonds, while Switzerland held a relatively high share in other.

Tower Watson