Methodology

To identify the states spending the most to fund their residents’s retirement, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed total state and local government pension contributions in 2017. We adjusted that figure per state and local government worker using 2017 data. State and local government pension spending came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 Annual Survey of Public Pensions and public sector employment came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We also considered each state’s pension funding ratio, which is the share of pension obligations that have funding from Pew Charitable Trusts, a public policy advocacy group. The share of the population 65 and older came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey.