OECD, pension assets will grow to 78 trillion dollars in 2025, +11.3%

The assets allocated to pensions "continued to increase in 2025, driven by the growth of contributions and positive returns on investments": this is what we read in the OECD Prospects on Pensions, according to which at the end of 2025 "pension assets in the OECD area amounted to a total of 78,000 billion dollars, a value 11.3% higher than at the end of 2024 and 4 to 5 times higher than that recorded in the early 2000s".

In OECD countries, in recent decades, pension assets "have grown faster than the economy, exceeding GDP at the end of 2024 (104.5% of GDP) and 2025 (105.6% of GDP)," the OECD points out in the document presented in Paris. Although there have been declines in some years, such as 2008 and 2022, pension assets have always started to grow again thereafter. However, the OECD is keen to underline that this overall growth hides marked differences between the various countries. “At the end of 2025, most assets were held in North America (Canada and the United States), Western Europe (the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland), Australia and Japan. By way of example, the value of assets held in the United States amounted to 51,800 billion dollars (of which 2,300 billion consisted of reserves for the public pension system), a figure that represents almost two-thirds of the total pension assets worldwide. Canada, Denmark, the United States, Iceland and Switzerland are the countries that hold the largest asset portfolios in relation to their GDP."