Annual Survey of Public Pensions: State Data

Data Collection: 2011

Dates of Collection: The following are important dates in the data collection process.

Mail-out: November, 2011
Follow-up Mailout: February, 2012

Data in these files are based on information obtained from the Annual Survey of Public Pensions. Forms were mailed to the 222 state-administered defined benefit pension systems in the public pension system universe. Staff contacted non-respondents through a follow-up mail-out and follow-up telephone calls. Approximately 59.0% of the respondents chose to submit their data via the web.

Data for survey year 2011 encompass fiscal years that ended between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011 (FY2011), and do not reflect data for the entire calendar year of 2011. There are exceptions to the fiscal year rule for the state retirement systems in Alabama, Michigan, and Texas. For systems in these states, the fiscal year moves beyond the June 30 cutoff. The data for survey year 2011 covers the fiscal year ending August 31, 2011 for Texas and September 30, 2011 for Alabama and Michigan. These exceptions are made to better align the pensions data with the State Finance Survey.

The Census Bureau collects these data by law under Title 13, U.S. Code, Sections 161 and 182.