Global pension assets rose by almost ten percent in 2025 to a new record high of US$68.3 trillion. This growth was primarily driven by capital market-oriented pension schemes and defined contribution models. This is according to the latest Global Pension Assets Study 2026 from the Thinking Ahead Institute of WTW.
With pension assets of approximately US$564 billion, Germany ranks among the ten largest pension markets worldwide, but plays only a minor role in international comparison. The USA alone accounts for nearly US$45 trillion, roughly two-thirds of global pension assets, followed by Canada and Japan, each with more than US$3 trillion. Germany’s share of global pension assets is less than one percent.
A Europe-wide comparison reveals Germany’s structural lag
The structural difference becomes particularly clear in a European comparison. German pension assets amount to only around eleven percent of gross domestic product. In other European countries, funded pension schemes are significantly more developed: In Switzerland, pension assets are around 173 percent of GDP, and in the Netherlands, around 147 percent. Plan assets in the United Kingdom also reach a considerably higher level, at around 82 percent of GDP. Countries like Finland (around 110 percent) and Sweden are clearly above the German figure. France, on the other hand, like Germany, only reaches a single-digit percentage of GDP.
Long-term growth also reveals a significant gap. Over the past ten years, German pension assets have grown by an average of 3.3 percent per year. This puts Germany behind both the global average and many comparable European markets. By comparison, growth rates in Switzerland and the Netherlands exceeded 4 percent per year, while capital market-oriented systems like those in the US (7.7 percent) and Canada (5.3 percent) recorded considerably higher increases.
“A European comparison shows that Germany lags significantly behind in funded pension schemes, both globally and within Europe, not only in terms of the volume of corresponding funding but, above all, structurally,” says Nikolaus Schmidt-Narischkin, CEO of WTW Investments GmbH. “While countries like the Netherlands and Switzerland adopted funded and institutionally organized pension solutions early on, pension provision in Germany remains largely based on a pay-as-you-go system. Against the backdrop of demographic change and maturing pension systems, organizational models are gaining importance that efficiently manage existing pension obligations and isolate risks from companies in the long term without compromising the benefits for beneficiaries.”
Globally, the study also highlights the structural transformation of retirement provision. In the seven largest pension markets, defined contribution (DC) schemes now account for 63 percent of pension assets. Markets with a high DC share have recorded above-average growth rates over the past ten years. At the same time, there is a greater diversification of investments, while integrated approaches to asset and risk management continue to gain importance.
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