Retirement Assets Total $43.4 Trillion in First Quarter 2025
Washington, DC; June 18, 2025 - Total US retirement assets were $43.4 trillion as of March 31, 2025, down 1.6 percent from December. Retirement assets accounted for 34 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of March 2025.
US Total Retirement Market Assets
Trillions of dollars, end-of-period, selected periods
e Data are estimated.
Note: For definitions of plan categories, see Table 1 in "The US Retirement Market, First Quarter 2025." Components may not add to the total because of rounding.
Sources: Investment Company Institute, Federal Reserve Board, Department of Labor, National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators, American Council of Life Insurers, and Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income Division.
Assets in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) totaled $16.8 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of 1.3 percent from the end of the fourth quarter of 2024. Defined contribution (DC) plan assets were $12.2 trillion at the end of the first quarter, down 1.9 percent from December 31, 2024. Government defined benefit (DB) plans—including federal, state, and local government plans—held $8.9 trillion in assets as of the end of March 2025, down 0.9 percent from the end of December 2024. Private-sector DB plans held $3.2 trillion in assets at the end of the first quarter of 2025, and annuity reserves outside of retirement accounts accounted for another $2.4 trillion.
Retirement Assets by Type
Billions of dollars, end-of-period, 2024:Q4–2025:Q1
e Data are estimated.
Sources: Investment Company Institute and Federal Reserve Board
Defined Contribution Plans
Americans held $12.2 trillion in all employer-based DC retirement plans on March 31, 2025, of which $8.7 trillion was held in 401(k) plans. In addition to 401(k) plans, at the end of the first quarter, $735 billion was held in other private-sector DC plans, $1.4 trillion in 403(b) plans, $477 billion in 457 plans, and $936 billion in the Federal Employees Retirement System’s Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Mutual funds managed $5.3 trillion, or 61 percent, of assets held in 401(k) plans at the end of March 2025. With $3.2 trillion, equity funds were the most common type of funds held in 401(k) plans, followed by $1.4 trillion in hybrid funds, which include target date funds.
401(k) Plan Assets
Billions of dollars, end-of-period, selected periods
Note: Components may not add to the total because of rounding.
Sources: Investment Company Institute and Department of Labor.
Individual Retirement Accounts
IRAs held $16.8 trillion in assets at the end of the first quarter of 2025. Thirty-eight percent of IRA assets, or $6.4 trillion, was invested in mutual funds. With $3.7 trillion, equity funds were the most common type of funds held in IRAs, followed by $1.1 trillion in hybrid funds.
IRA Market Assets
Billions of dollars, end-of-period, selected periods
e Data are estimated.
Note: Components may not add to the total because of rounding.
Sources: Investment Company Institute, Federal Reserve Board, American Council of Life Insurers, and Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income Division
Other Developments
Retirement entitlements include financial assets, other assets, and the unfunded liabilities of DB plans. Under a DB plan, employees accrue benefits to which they are legally entitled and which represent assets to US households and liabilities to plans. To the extent that pension plan assets are insufficient to cover accrued benefit entitlements, a DB pension plan has a claim on the plan sponsor.
As of March 31, 2025, total US retirement entitlements were $47.8 trillion, including $43.4 trillion of financial assets, $190 billion in other assets, and another $4.2 trillion of unfunded liabilities. Retirement entitlements accounted for 37 percent of the financial assets of all US households at the end of March.
Unfunded liabilities are a larger issue for government DB plans than for private-sector DB plans. As of the end of the first quarter of 2025, unfunded liabilities were 34 percent of benefit entitlements for state and local government DB plans, 26 percent of benefit entitlements for federal government DB plans, and 1 percent of benefit entitlements for private-sector DB plans.
US Total Retirement Entitlements
Trillions of dollars, end-of-period, 2025:Q1
e Data are estimated.
Note: For definitions of categories, see Tables 1 and 2 in "The US Retirement Market, First Quarter 2025." Components may not add to the total because of rounding."
Sources: Investment Company Institute and Federal Reserve Board.
The quarterly retirement data tables are available at “The US Retirement Market, First Quarter 2025.”