Money & Business
The Largest Pension Funds in the World
Four funds hold more than $1 trillion each, led by Norway at $2.11 trillion, ahead of Japan’s GPIF, the US Thrift Savings Plan and Korea’s NPS, in the 2026 Global Top 300 study.
Pictured: a Bloomberg Television video on the investment philosophy of Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, #1 with $2.11 trillion.
Method and caveats: every row, rank and dollar figure comes from one source, the Thinking Ahead Institute (WTW) and Pensions & Investments Global Top 300 Pension Funds study published in September 2026, which measures assets at the end of 2025 in US dollars; funds reporting in other currencies are converted by the study, and a few report on a different fiscal year-end, so figures differ from each fund’s own latest numbers (several have grown since). Norway: the study counts the Government Pension Fund Global as the largest pension fund, but it is often classed as a sovereign wealth fund; it is listed once here and its type is shown as a sovereign savings fund. The Thrift Savings Plan, the provident funds of Singapore, Malaysia and India, and the Dutch sector funds differ in design (individual accounts versus pooled benefits), so assets are comparable in size, not in what they promise. “Fund type” is RList’s own grouping. The study ranks the top 300 funds; this post shows the top 20.[1]
The Top 10
#1
Government Pension Fund Global — $2,109.5 billion
The fund was created to save Norway’s oil and gas income for future generations and is run by Norges Bank Investment Management. It stood at about $2.11 trillion in the Thinking Ahead Institute (TAI) table, the first time any fund has passed $2 trillion, and it is 12.7 percent bigger than Japan’s GPIF. Classification: the TAI and Pensions & Investments study counts it as a pension fund, but it is also widely called a sovereign wealth fund, and it holds oil wealth for the state rather than paying members’ pensions directly. It is listed once, here. It was worth roughly 22.7 trillion kroner (about $2.3 trillion) by mid-2026, per press reports.[2]
#2
GPIF — $1,872.1 billion
For more than 20 years Japan’s GPIF was the largest pension fund in the world, until Norway overtook it in 2024. It invests the reserves of Japan’s Employees’ Pension Insurance and National Pension schemes and splits its target portfolio evenly (25 percent each) between domestic stocks, foreign stocks, domestic bonds and foreign bonds. It held about ¥293.6 trillion at the end of fiscal 2025 (31 March 2026); the dollar figure in the table is the TAI’s end-2025 conversion.[3]
#3
Thrift Savings Plan — $1,057.3 billion
The US federal government’s defined-contribution retirement plan for civilian federal employees and members of the uniformed services, run by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. Unlike the funds above it, it is a collection of individual accounts, not a pooled benefit, with nearly 7.3 million participant accounts and more than $1.07 trillion at the end of 2025. It reported a record 224,420 account “millionaires” by July 2026.[4]
#4
National Pension Service — $1,005.5 billion
South Korea’s public pension reserve, built from contributions that were set at 9 percent of pay. A 2025 reform raised the rate in steps toward 13 percent by 2033. Its depletion date has been a running political topic: the government once projected 2056 at the old contribution rate, while a stock-market rally in 2026 has pushed later estimates back by several years.[5]
#5
ABP — $624.7 billion
The Dutch pension fund for government, education and public-sector workers. It had about €533 billion at the end of 2025 for roughly 2.8 million members, and it is due to move to the Netherlands’ new pension system on 1 January 2027, replacing its defined-benefit design with personal pension pots. It is the largest European fund in this list after NorwayIt is the largest pension fund in Europe outside Norway.rsquo;s.[6]
#6
Canada Pension Plan — $578.4 billion
CPP Investments invests the money of the Canada Pension Plan, the earnings-related pension for working Canadians, at arm’s length from government. It is the largest pension fund in Canada and one of the most active private-markets investors among public pensions.[7]
#7
CalPERS — $576.2 billion
The largest state or local public pension in the United States in this ranking (the federal TSP is bigger). CalPERS manages retirement benefits for California public employees, retirees and their families, and it is among the world’s largest institutional investors.[8]
#8
Central Provident Fund — $514.5 billion
Singapore’s mandatory savings scheme for citizens and permanent residents covers retirement, housing and healthcare, with members holding balances in separate accounts. TAI classes it with pension funds even though it is a provident fund and not a benefit pension, and it appears here as such.[9]
#9
National Social Security Fund — $420.7 billion
China’s national social security reserve, set up in 2000 and managed by the National Council for Social Security Fund. It is the only Chinese fund in the top 20 and a strategic reserve for the country’s ageing population.[10]
#10
CalSTRS — $385.6 billion
CalSTRS provides retirement benefits for California’s public school educators from kindergarten through community college. It is the second California fund in the top 10, and the third US fund in it overall.[11]
Sources
- Thinking Ahead Institute (WTW) in conjunction with Pensions & Investments, Global Top 300 Pension Funds 2026, press release “Top pension funds grow at fastest rate since 2017” (thinkingaheadinstitute.org, 7 September 2026): the Top 20 table (all 20 rows and every dollar figure in the table, in US$ millions), the $27.7 trillion Top 300 total, and the 12.7 percent lead of the Norwegian fund. The same table is reproduced by RankiaPro (rankiapro.com, 10 September 2026). Fund type is RList’s own grouping, not TAI’s.
- Norges Bank Investment Management, “About the fund” (nbim.no); Oilprice.com coverage of the fund’s first-half 2026 results (about 22,683 billion kroner, roughly $2.3 trillion, at mid-2026).
- GPIF, Annual Report Summary 2025 (gpif.go.jp): ¥293,643.7 billion at the end of fiscal 2025 and the 25/25/25/25 policy portfolio; Jiji Press and Adnkronos coverage of the fiscal 2025 result.
- Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, monthly Participant Activity Reports (frtib.gov); FedSmith, “TSP millionaires hit new record as markets rebound in Q2” (fedsmith.com, 27 July 2026).
- BNN Bloomberg, “Korea says its pension fund will run dry by 2056 if no reform” (September 2024); Korean press reports of the 2025 contribution-rate reform and the 2026 stock-market rally (Korea JoongAng Daily, Maeil/Seoul Economic coverage via fnnews.com).
- European Pensions, “ABP receives DNB approval for transition to new Dutch pension scheme” (europeanpensions.net); ABP (abp.nl).
- CPP Investments (cppinvestments.com), “What we do”.
- CalPERS (calpers.ca.gov), investment office overview.
- CPF Board (cpf.gov.sg), “CPF Explained” series.
- National Council for Social Security Fund (ssf.gov.cn); AP Archive report on the fund’s overseas investment.
- CalSTRS (calstrs.com), investments overview.
