Industry News

On July 12, 2022, the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) released its report, Fortifying Main Street: The Economic Benefit of Public Pension Dollars in Small Towns and Rural America. The NIRS research provides an assessment of the economic impact of public pension benefit dollars in 2,922 counties in 43 states.

The report indicates that, among the counties included in the study, pension benefit dollars represent an average of between 1% and 3% of gross domestic product (GDP). Of these counties, pension benefit dollars average 1.25% of total personal income, while some counties experience more than 6% of total personal income derived from pension dollars.

Other key findings include:

• Rural counties have the highest percentages of their populations receiving public pension benefits;
• Small town counties have a larger relative impact for both GDP and total personal income from pension benefit dollars than rural or metropolitan counties;
• Rural counties experience a greater impact on personal income than metropolitan counties, while metropolitan counties and rural counties have an equivalent impact on GDP;
• Counties with state capitals differ from other metropolitan counties, since there is a greater density of public employees that frequently remain in these counties in retirement; and
• From 2000 to 2018, on average, rural counties have lost population while small town counties and metropolitan counties have gained population; however, the connection is weak between population change and the relative impact of public pension benefit dollars.

The report is available here.